un 

291 


UC-NRLF 


The  Psychology  of  the   Club;   A 
Study  in  Social   Psychology 


BY 

LOUIS   D.   HARTSON 


A  DISSERTATION  SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF 
CLARK  UNIVERSITY,  WORCESTER,  MASS.,  IN  PARTIAL 
FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  THE 
DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  AND  ACCEPTED 
ON  THE  RECOMMENDATION  OF  G.  STANLEY  HALL 


Reprinted  from  the  PEDAGOGICAL  SEMINARY 
September,  1911,  Vol.  XVIII,  pp.  353-414 


The  Psychology  of  the   Club;   A 
Study   in  Social   Psychology 


BY  v 


LOUIS   D.   HARTSON 


A  DISSERTATION  SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF 
CLARK  UNIVERSITY,  WORCESTER,  MASS.,  IN  PARTIAL 
FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  THE 
DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  AND  ACCEPTED 
ON  THE  RECOMMENDATION  OF  G.  STANLEY  HALL 


Reprinted  from  the  PEDAGOGICAL  SEMINARY 
September,  1911,  Vol.  XVIII,  pp.  353-414 


THE    PSYCHOLOGY    OF    THE    CLUB;  A    STUDY    IN 
SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY1 


By  Louis  D.  HARTSON 


INTRODUCTION 

The  Spectator  says  that  there  is  nothing,  as  far  as  he  can 
see,  that  any  human  being  can  desire  to  do,  to  think,  or  to 
work  for,  that  has  not  a  society  all  ready  for  him  or  her  to 
enter.  The  path  of  life  is  beset  with  membership  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave  (74).  The  kindergarten  has  its  alumni 
association,  invalids  have  their  Shut- In  Society,  the  poor 
organize,  the  rich  organize,  everybody  belongs  to  some  sort 
of  a  club.  At  a  recent  murder  in  one  of  our  large  cities  the 
jury,  though  it  had  shown  itself  unable  to  agree  on  a  verdict, 
agreed  at  once,  as  soon  as  discharged,  to  organize  as  a  per- 
manent society,  pay  dues,  and  have  an  annual  dinner.  The 
Spectator  expects  soon  to  see  an  announcement  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Daughters  of  Ellis  Island  with  Wilhelm  der  Grosse 
Chapters  or  Lusitania  Leagues. 

For  the  purpose  of  studying  this  phenomenon  of  the  social 
structure  data  have  been  gathered  ostensibly  in  all  the  most 
prominent  forms  of  its  manifestation.  Obviously  those 
societies  formed  by  one  group  of  people  for  another  group, 
such  as  societies  formed  by  adults  for  children,  are  of  less 
importance  for  psychological  interpretation  than  are  societies 
formed  by  groups  for  their  own  membership.  We  present 
the  data  therefore  only  of  this  latter  type  of  society.  In 
order  to  have  a  generic  term  which  will  include  all  such  socie- 
ties, and  because  the  word  society  has  a  double  meaning,  we 
employ  the  term  club.  The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  make  a 
psychological  interpretation  of  the  club  as  a  social  institution. 
The  first  section  presents  the  facts  regarding  the  existence 

]In  this  all  too  unsatisfactory  manner  the  writer  desires  to  acknowledge 
the  helpful  assistance  he  has  received  in  the  preparation  of  this  thesis. 
Primarily  in  point  of  time  should  be  mentioned  the  inspiration  received 
from  Dean  Thomas  M.  Balliet,  of  New  York  University,  and  the  two  years 
training  in  boys'  club  work  under  Miss  C.  I.  MacColl,  of  Christpdora 
House,  New  York  City.  For  material  used  in  this  thesis  the  writer  is 
indebted  to  Prof.  Will  S.  Monroe,  of  Montclair,  N.  J.,  and  Miss  Clare 
Lyon,  of  Lidgerwood,  N.  Dak.  In  the  interpretation  of  the  data  a  debt 
has  been  incurred  to  all  of  the  Clark  University  faculty,  and  particularly 
to  Dr.  T.  L.  Smith  who  is  truly  the  research  assistant  of  all  the  students. 

239324 


*5  •. ••*  •**A:  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

of  clubs  in  this  country  important  for  this  intrepretation. 
Beginning  with  the  field  of  children's  group  activities  the  course 
of  development  is  observed  through  the  gang  into  the  club, 
which  is  followed  in  its  evolution  to  the  mature  form  found 
among  adults.  Having  thus  before  us  the  facts  our  problem 
consists  in  interpreting  them  on  the  basis  of  what  is  known  of 
functional  psychology. 

SECTION  I.  PRESENTATION  OF  THE  DATA 
Chap.  I.     Group  and  Gang  Life  in  Children 

The  club  viewed  genetically  has  a  gradual  growth.  It  does 
not  spring  up  as  a  mature  institution  at  any  one  definite 
chronological  period  in  the  life  of  a  group  of  individuals.  Its 
beginning  is  to  be  traced  back  into  the  group  activities  of 
childhood.  Gulick  says  that  the  first  appearance  of  group 
games  is  at  about  7,  in  which  games  the  centre  of  interest 
is  one's  self  in  relation  to  others  (34,  p.  39)  •  The  games  played 
are  the  simple  ball  games,  such  as  one  old  cat,  running  games 
like  tag,  prisoner's  base,  hide  and  seek  and  black  man,  and 
the  marble  games.  There  are  throwing  games  like  duck  on 
the  rock,  the  highly  individualistic  game  of  stunts  or  follow  the 
leader,  in  which  one  boy  performs  some  difficult  or  daring 
feat  and  the  game  consists  in  having  the  other  boys  one  by  one, 
do  the  same  thing  in  the  same  way.  Other  games  of  this 
period  are  leap  frog,  mumble  the  peg,  etc.  This  is  the  time 
when  predatory  activities  gain  prominence  as  do  the  closely 
allied  activities  of  hunting,  fishing,  swimming,  skating,  snow- 
balling and  the  so-called  savage  activities.  More  highly  organ- 
ized group  games  appear  at  approximately  the  age  of  12, 
according  to  Gulick.  Teamwork  is  the  keynote  now.  The 
more  common  of  these  games  are  baseball,  basketball,  cricket 
and  hockey  (34). 

Zach.  McGhee  found  that  group  games  began  earlier  than  12  (50). 
He  gathered  returns  from  about  10,000  children  in  South  Carolina  between 
the  ages  of  6  and  18,  which  designated  the  5  favorite  games  of  their  choice 
from  a  long  list  submitted  to  them.  Baseball  was  found  to  be  one  of  the 
favorite  games  by  57%  of  the  boys  at  the  age  of  6,  and  football  by  43%. 
Even  though  these  games  be  poorly  organized  among  boys  of  this  age  it  is 
evident  that  they  are  very  popular.  In  later  years  they  become  even  more 
popular.  The  curves  for  baseball  show  an  upshoot  at  1 1 .  From  being  the 
choice  of  57%  at  6  years  it  is  preferred  by  72%  of  the  boys  of  1 1  and  con- 
tinues at  that  level  till  18,  the  age  limit  of  the  study.  Football  shows  a 
steady  growth  in  popularity  from  6  to  16.  Considerable  difference  is 
evident  between  the  sexes  as  to  the  degree  of  organization  and  co-operation 
in  the  games  preferred.  Having  grouped  the  games  which  require  co-opera- 
tion, McGhee  found  that  this  curve  was  low  for  girls  throughout  the  whole 
period  from  6  to  1 8.  His  returns  support  the  thesis  that  games  requiring  or- 
ganization and  rules  do  not  appeal  to  girls.  Of  the  12  games  receiving  the 
highest  number  of  votes  5  are  totally  lacking  in  co-operation,  while  most  of 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  355 

the  others  have  but  little  organization.  Croquet,  the  only  organized  game 
that  is  anywhere  high  on  the  girls'  list  is  very  low  until  the  age  of  12.  On 
the  other  hand  unorganized  games  are  abnormally  high  until  that  age. 
Girls'  favorite  plays  for  the  entire  period  from  6  to  18  rank  as  follows: 
dolls  have  the  first  place,  chosen  by  28.7%  of  the  girls;  jump  rope,  21.6%; 
between  10  and  22%  are  ranked  authors,  crokinole,  open  gates,  parchesi,' 
hide  and  seek,  drop  handkerchief  and  dancing. 

Scott  characterizes  the  period  from  9  to  12  as  one  of  increased  activity 
in  which  the  games  are  co-operative  but  poorly  organized  (66).  His 
data  are  gathered  from  returns  to  a  questionnaire  sent  out  in  Springfield, 
Mass.  In  90  cases  the  returns  came  from  adults;  in  the  other  490  they 
were  from  boys  of  10  to  18  years.  Boys  not  belonging  to  a  group  were 
asked  whether  they  had  a  few  chums.  The  returns  showed  that  68.5% 
belonged  to  a  group  and  that  1 8  %  of  the  others  had  chums.  Scott  considers 
a  group  containing  less  than  5  as  too  small  to  constitute  a  gang;  if  4 boys 
associate  together  he  considers  them  as  chums.  Groups  as  large  as  9  were 
found  among  the  younger  boys.  With  increasing  age  the  size  of  the  group 
decreased.  He  declares  the  period  from  12  to  14  to  be  that  of  the  closely 
organized  group.  Two-thirds  of  the  boys  he  questioned  said  that  their 
gangs  had  secrets,  though  sometimes  this  was  nothing  more  than  a  certain 
whistle  or  call.  One  half  of  them  had  some  sort  of  an  initiation. 

The  period  from  6  to  10  is  the  time  when  the  formation  of  chumship 
is  most  frequent,  according  to  Bonser  (i  i).  In  studying  756  boys  and  1,279 
girls  in  Illinois  he  found  that  the  tendency  toward  chumming  becomes  very 
strong  in  girls  as  early  as  5  years  and  reaches  its  height  at  6,  when  15%  of 
such  friendships  were  formed.  Among  boys  this  tendency  develops  a 
little  later  and  reaches  its  minimum  at  10.  Bonser  treats  only  the  relation- 
ships between  two  individuals,  on  the  basis  that  three  is  a  crowd.  Of  the 
2,000,  only  40  state  that  they  never  had  chums.  His  returns  indicate  that 
after  puberty  the  formation  of  this  type  of  relationship  falls  off  very  rapidly. 
Nearly  half  of  the  answers  were  from  pupils  of  the  latter  half  of  the  high 
school  course.  Between  13  and  17  the  curve  of  frequency  of  forming  chum- 
ships  falls  from  8  to  less  than  i%  of  the  cases.  Chums  of  early  years 
continue  to  be  such  through  the  later  years.  Chums  are  reported  as  being 
of  the  same  age.  Differences  in  the  ages  of  two  chums  exceed  2  years  in 
only  2  %  of  the  cases  for  boys  and  i  %  for  girls.  Bonser  says  that  if  older 
associates  are  chosen  they  are  not  made  chums  or  cronies  of  the  confidential 
sort  (n,  p.  224).  Those  reporting  dispositions  opposite  to  or  different 
from  then"  chums  are  22.2%  of  the  girls  and  24.2%  of  the  boys.  The  re- 
maining number  replied  that  they  were  the  same  or  similar.  Statements 
were  made  by  18  boys  and  26  girls  that  they  never  had  chums.  In  most 
of  these  cases,  as  shown  by  the  other  answers,  there  appeared  an  over 
developed  self-consciousness  which  restricted  naturalness.  Of  the  756  boys 
and  1,179  girls  reporting  but  12.4%  of  the  former  and  16.6%  of  the  latter 
state  that  the  friendship  with  their  chums  were  broken.  Of  these,  34  boys 
and  62  girls  give  as  their  reason  the  fact  that  they  moved  away  from  the 
neighborhood  in  which  the  chum  lived.  Quarrels  were  stated  as  being  the 
cause  by  12  boys  and  14  girls. 

A  study  of  the  146  boys  in  the  Lyman  School,  Westborough,  Mass.,  (a 
reform  school)  by  Puffer  (61)  showed  that  128  of  them  had  been  members 
of  gangs.  These  boys  ranged  from  1 1  to  16  years.  The  average  age  of  the 
youngest  boys  in  the  gangs  studied  was  12.1  years,  that  of  the  oldest  was 
16.25  years.  The  youngest  boy  in  the  gang  was  7;  the  oldest  was  19. 
Only  3  of  these  gangs  existed  in  country  towns  and  only  4  from  places  less 
than  10,000  in  population.  This  only  shows,  Puffer  says,  that  boys  from 
country  towns  are  not  sent  to  a  reform  school.  These  128  boys  belonged 
to  66  different  gangs.  Of  these,  44  had  i  leader,  8  had  2  leaders,  and  a  few 
had  more  than  2.  The  average  size  of  the  gang  was  10.  In  24  cases  the 
leader  informally  took  upon  himself  that  office;  in  4  cases  the  boy  was 


356  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

informally  given  the  leadership,  and  in  4  more  cases  he  was  elected  by 
ballot.  In  most  cases  the  boys  did  not  know  how  the  gang  started,  for 
only  17  could  give  any  report.  Of  these,  6  said  that  the  gang  was  started 
by  the  leader;  n  stated  that  they  had  been  in  the  gang  5  years  or  more. 
Strangers  were  treated  with  little  sympathy  or  were  maltreated.  Loyalty 
to  the  group  was  found  the  dominant  motif  in  the  rules.  Of  the  5 1  rules 
reported  by  the  various  gangs,  18  were  against  "squeeling,"  8  against 
lying  to  one  of  the  gang,  and  8  required  standing  by  one  another  in  trouble. 
Out  of  the  54  records  there  were  only  7  gangs  which  did  not  meet  every  day; 
of  these,  3  met  3  times  a  week,  2  twice  a  week,  and  i  once  a  week.  In  the 
records  of  63  gangs  all  but  4  had  regular  meeting  places.  The  gangs  have  a 
proprietary  feeling  for  the  neighborhood  of  their  meeting  place.  Only  8  of 
these  gangs  were  exclusive  in  membership,  though  they  generally  had  a  defi- 
nite rule  to  entrance  to  regulate.  These  regulations  show  that  they  did  not 
have  to  recruit  members;  that  the  new  boys  wanted  to  get  into  the  gang. 
Out  of  48  gangs  only  1 1  report  any  form  of  initiation.  The  chief  occupation 
of  these  gangs  was  some  form  of  physical  activity.  Under  this  title  may 
be  grouped  co-operative  and  nonco-operative  games,  fighting,  predatory  and 
migratory  activities  and  the  other  outdoor  occupations  designated  as  savage. 
The  occupations  which  did  not  find  their  chief  element  in  physical  activity 
include  theatre-going,  mentioned  by  38  gangs,  card-playing  by  25,  gambling 
by  12,  smoking  by  30  and  drinking  by  9.  The  attendance  at  theatres  was 
not  by  gangs  but  by  twos  and  threes.  However  the  necessary  money  was 
obtained  by  gang  activity.  Of  the  physical  activities,  co-operative  games 
were  the  most  popular.  Out  of  66  gangs  53  have  records  of  games  requiring 
co-operation,  such  as  baseball,  football,  hockey,  basketball  and  cricket; 
49  of  the  gangs  spent  part  of  their  time  hunting,  fishing,  berrying,  building 
boats,  shanties  and  dugouts,  and  camping.  Predatory  activities  in  the  form 
of  stealing  were  reported  by  43  gangs.  Fighting  between  gangs  both  of  the 
innocent  snowball  variety  and  with  fists,  stones  and  clubs,  was  reported  by 
22  different  gangs.  Activities  which  resulted  in  plaguing  people,  such  as 
tick-tacking  on  the  windows,  ringing  doorbells,  calling  names  at  Chinamen, 
Jews,  Italians  and  policemen  were  mentioned  by  45  gangs. 

Browne  (12)  made  a  study  of  'gang  instinct  in  boys'  which  corresponds 
with  the  data  Puffer  gathered,  though  the  sources  were  rather  different. 
Browne  went  through  books  on  boy  life  by  Aldrich  (5),  Howells  (41 ),  Hutton 
(42)  and  Warner  (85),  the  studies  of  Sheldon  (67),  Gulick  (34),  and  Culin 
20),  the  reminiscences  of  50  students  at  the  International  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Training  School,  newspaper  stories  and  the  answers  received  from  a  number 
of  boys  on  the  street.  Of  the  50  students,  25  had  been  members  of  gangs. 
In  20  cases  the  ages  of  the  members  of  the  gangs  was  given.  The  extremes 
were  7  and  18.  Within  the  gang  the  disparity  of  ages  ranged  between  2 
and  ii  years  (the  latter  exception  being  in  a  town  gang  of  75  boys). 
The  medium  disparity  in  ages  was  4.5  years. 

Stewart  Culin  (20),  writing  in  1891,  gives  the  names  of  50  different 
gangs  in  Philadelphia  which  he  obtained  by  personal  inquiry  among  the  boys 
along  the  Schuylkill  River  front.  He  gives  no  other  details  except  to  say 
that  they  had  their  laws  and  customs,  their  feuds  and  compacts.  The 
names  would  suggest  that  the  boys  were  of  tough  character.  Similar  condi- 
tions have  been  reported  by  social  workers  in  other  cities.  Jacob  Riis 
wrote  in  1890:  "The  gang  is  an  institution  in  New  York.  .  .  Every  corner 
has  its  gang.  .  .  The  gangs  belt  the  city  like  a  huge  chain  from  the 
Battery  to  Harlem.  .  .  They  have  their  'club  rooms'  where  they  meet, 
generally  in  a  tenement,  sometimes  under  a  pier  or  a  dump  to  carouse' 
play  cards  and  plan  their  raids.  .  .  The  fiction  of  a  social  'club'  which 
most  of  the  gangs  keep  up,  helps  them  to  a  pretext  for  blackmailing  the 
politicians  and  the  storekeepers  in  their  bailiwick  at  the  annual  sessions  of 
their  picnic  or  ball"  (64,  p.  217-230).  Speaking  of  Boston,  Robert  A 
Woods  wrote  in  1898:  "Almost  every  boy  in  the  tenement-house  quarters 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY  357 

of  the  district  is  a  member  of  a  gang.  The  boy  who  does  not  belong  to  one 
is  not  only  the  exception,  but  the  very  rare  exception.  There  are  certain 
characteristics  in  the  make-up  and  life  of  all  gangs.  To  begin  with,  every 
gang  has  a  'corner'  where  its  members  meet.  This  'hang  out,'  as  it  is 
sometimes  called,  may  be  in  the  centre  of  the  block,  but  still  the  gang  speak 
of  it  as  the  'corner'.  The  size  of  the  gang  varies;  it  may  number  five  or 
forty.  As  a  rule,  all  the  boys  composing  it  come  from  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  corner.  Every  gang  has  one  or  two  leaders;  and  of  course 
its  character  depends  very  much  upon  the  leaders,  for  as  one  of  the  boys 
expressed  it  the  leader  says  '"Come"  '  and  the  push  move'  .  .  Nightly 
after  supper  the  boys  drift  to  their  corner,  not  by  appointment,  but  natur- 
ally. Then  ensue  idle  talk,  'jawing  matches,'  as  one  boy  expressed  it, 
rough  jokes,  and  horse-play.  .  .  I  am  referring  now  more  particularly 
to  boys  over  fourteen  years  old.  .  .  About  thirty  young  men  belonging 
to  one  of  the  gangs  I  know,  meet  every  Sunday  afternoon  at  their  corner. 
Of  this  number,  fully  half  are  fellows  who  live  in  the  highlands,  at  the  edge 
of  Roxbury.  I  know  a  boy  in  High  School — he  will  graduate  next  year — 
who  moved  to  Dorchester,  but  comes  regularly  to  the  old  corner  on  Sunday 
afternoon.  No  new  friends  can  supplant  the  gang.  .  .  It  is  interesting 
to  know  what  becomes  of  these  various  gangs  when  the  boys  get  to  be 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years  old.  The  more  respectable  gangs,  as  a  rule, 
club  together  and  hire  a  room.  The  more  vicious  prefer  to  use  what  little 
money  they  have  in  carousing"  (87,  p.  114-118).  From  her  Chicago  ex- 
perience Jane  Addams  says,  in  the  same  words  Mr.  Woods  uses:  "the  boy 
in  the  tenement  house  region  who  does  not  belong  to  the  gang  is  not  only 
the  exception,  but  a  very  rare  exception"  (i,  p.  176). 

Chap.  II.     The  Boys1  and  Girls'  Club 

Henry  D.  Sheldon  made  a  comprehensive  study  of  the 
institutional  activities  of  American  children  (67).  According 
to  the  data  gathered  from  2,508  papers  of  value  written  as  a 
classroom  exercise,  received  from  children  of  the  ages  8  to  17, 
from  5  localities,  East  and  West,  rural  and  metropolitan,  68% 
were  or  had  been  members  of  clubs.  Many  of  these  were  of 
adult  formation,  leaving  1,166  purely  spontaneous  children's 
organizations.  An  attempt  was  made  to  divide  the  societies 
into  groups  on  the  basis  of  their  activities,  with  a  separate 
group  for  those  having  secret  elements.  The  figures  are  pre- 
sented in  a  chart.  For  the  purpose  of  making  a  comparative 
study  these  figures  have  been  worked  over  and  are  shown  in 
the  accompanying  table.  For  each  age  from  8  to  17  are 
shown  the  number  of  papers  collected,  the  number  of  spontane- 
ously formed  societies,  the  number  of  societies  described  in  the 
papers  which  were  formed  by  adults  for  children,  the  per- 
centage of  those  belonging  to  spontaneous  and  adult  formed 
societies.  In  order  to  compare  the  activities  at  the  different 
ages  their  relative  importance  among  spontaneously  formed 
clubs  has  been  worked  out  in  percentages.  The  groups 
Sheldon  made  are  entitled :  secret,  predatory,  athletic,  social, 
industrial,  philanthropic,  and  in  one  group  literary,  art,  and 
musical  societies. 


358 


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A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

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A   STUDY   IN    SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 


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360          A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

At  the  age  of  8,  with  which  the  investigation  began,  the  per- 
centage of  those  answering  who  belonged  to  spontaneously 
formed  clubs  was  28.  As  the  returns  received  were  class  room 
exercises  given  to  all  the  pupils  in  the  grades  investigated,  2,906 
in  number,  these  figures  may  be  taken  as  representing  approxi- 
mately the  proportion  of  such  school  children  belonging  to 
clubs.  Of  this  large  number  only  224  did  not  write;  of  the 
returns  received  398  were  defective  in  some  details  though  they 
all  described  clubs.  The  height  of  the  curve  of  membership 
is  reached  at  12  when  over  half  of  the  pupils  belonged  to  clubs. 
Comparing  girls  and  boys  the  age  of  8  shows  both  sexes  at  a 
level,  28  per  cent.  The  girls'  curve  reaches  its  apex  of  60  at 
12  years,  the  boys'  curve  rises  to  68  at  10  and  then  diminishes. 
In  all  cases  the  figures  for  the  ages  of  16  and  17  are  so  few  as  to 
invalidate  them.  Of  the  girls  48%  belonged  to  clubs  of  their 
own  formation;  for  the  boys  the  figure  is  55%.  Certainly 
Puffer  (61,  p.  178)  and  Forbush  (27,  p.  314;  26,  p.  44)  are  unin- 
tentionally misinterpreting  the  facts  when  they  say  that 
Sheldon's  figures  show  that  only  7%  of  the  clubs  were  formed 
before  10  and  that  11,12  and  13  are  the  ages  when  the  largest 
number  of  clubs  were  formed.  Sheldon's  figures  furnish  no 
direct  information  on  the  question  as  to  when  the  clubs  were 
formed  nor  their  duration,  though  they  suggest  that  they  were 
formed  much  earlier  than  Forbush  and  Puffer  say.  The 
years  when  they  were  most  prevalent  are  from  10  to  14. 

Despite  the  instructions  that  none  but  spontaneously  formed 
clubs  be  described  623  clubs  formed  by  adults  for  children  were 
written  up.  The  curve  of  relation  between  the  number  of 
these  and  the  total  number  of  papers  collected  shows  a  per- 
centage at  8  years  of  33.  Except  for  a  rise  again  to  33  at  13 
there  is  a  general  decline  with  age.  Girls  outnumber  boys  in 
the  ratio  of  34:22  in  these  societies. 

A  consideration  of  the  activities  of  these  clubs  shows  that 
secret  organizations  which  constitute  7%  of  the  clubs  are 
slightly  more  popular  in  the  earlier  years,  and  that  they  are 
predominantly  found  among  girls.  These  were,  Sheldon  says, 
mostly  social  or  'good  time'  clubs,  though  other  types  of  clubs 
also  had  secret  features.  A  better  classification  would  have 
counted  these  also  under  the  separate  headings.  The  curve  for 
predatory  activities  begins  at  17%  and  gradually  diminishes. 
With  8  and  9  year  old  girls  it  is  as  prominent  as  with  boys; 
after  that  it  drops  rapidly.  The  curve  for  boys  continues  to 
be  high  until  15.  The  term  predatory  however  is  given  a  very 
loose  meaning.  A  better  term  for  what  is  meant  would  be 
unorganized  play  as  contrasted  with  athletics,  i.  e.,  the  plays 
carried  on  without  rules  and  being  unruly.  For  organized 
games  or  athletics  the  curve  rises  from  27%  at  8,  to  48  at  10, 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  361 

drops  to  35,  at  12,  and  then  rises  to  49,  at  15.  This  is  domin- 
antly  the  boy's  type.  Though  it  rises  to  15  from  7  with  girls,  it 
continues  to  be  but  a  minority  choice  throughout.  The  girls' 
popular  choice  consists  of  those  activities  which  Sheldon  groups 
together  as  industrial  occupations,  sewing,  giving  shows,  play- 
ing store  and  collecting.  This  curve  rises  from  33  to  44,  then 
drops  to  10.  With  boys  it  starts  at  7%,  reaches  15  at  1 1  years, 
and  then  drops.  Philanthropic  organizations,  which  constitute 
3%  of  the  spontaneous  clubs,  consist  in  his  study  of  2  types, 
those  whose  chief  object  is  to  help  other  people  and  those 
formed  for  mutual  help  against  such  vices  as  swearing,  using 
slang,  smoking  and  the  like.  The  group  of  social  clubs 
constitutes  1 1%  of  the  whole.  This  is  dominantly  a  girl's  club, 
with  whom  it  varies  from  15  to  27%  after  its  appearance  at 
9  years.  Only  the  philanthropic  clubs  have  a  lower  standing 
in  relative  importance  with  boys,  social  clubs  being  on  a  par 
with  secret  clubs,  literary,  art  and  musical  organizations. 
This  last  group  is  the  latest  to  appear.  At  1 1  years  it  reaches 
4%  and  until  16  never  goes  higher  than  13%.  Boys  and  girls 
do  not  organize  together. 

In  addition  to  the  data  from  children  Sheldon  collected 
reminiscences  from  453  adults  in  response  to  a  questionnaire. 
These  he  does  not  tabulate  but  summarizes  and  generalizes. 

The  period  before  10  years  he  characterizes  as  the  stage 
of  imitation.  At  this  time  the  play  mimics  the  occupations 
of  adults  whom  they  see,  hear  or  read  about.  The  second 
period,  from  10  to  14,  he  calls  the  period  of  invention  and  the 
following  of  instinct.  We  shall  defer  interpretation  till  the 
second  section  of  the  paper.  It  must  be  said  in  passing,  how- 
ever, that  the  cases  cited  as  illustrations  of  this  new  element 
of  invention  and  instinct  include  a  case  of  a  Jesse  James  gang, 
a  typical  gang  with  a  club  house  and  an  Indian  club.  The 
cases  he  cites  do  not  support  the  thesis  of  the  appearance  of 
invention  at  this  age. 

The  quotation  above  from  Mr.  Woods  ended  with  the  state- 
ment that  the  more  respectable  gangs  form  clubs.  His 
description  of  them  particularly  emphasizes  their  role  in  poli- 
tics. There  are  8  of  these  young  men's  clubs  in  his  district 
of  Boston.  In  New  York  they  are  much  more  numerous  and 
similar  conditions  exist  in  other  cities.  One  of  the  chief 
undertakings  of  these  'social  pleasure'  clubs,  as  they  are 
generally  called,  is  the  management  of  an  annual  ball  held 
in  one  of  the  public  dance  halls.  During  the  winter  months 
in  Tammany  Hall,  Arlington  Hall,  Clinton  Hall  and  the 
hundreds  of  other  dance  halls  in  New  York  several  'Full 
Dress  and  Civic,'  Mask  Balls,  or  'Barn  Dances'  per  week  are 
held  by  these  social  clubs,  so  numerous  are  they.  One  club 


362  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

whose  meetings  and  dances  the  writer  has  attended  held  two 
'annual  balls'  the  same  year.  Picnics  are  held  in  the  summer. 
Most  of  the  members  of  these  are  wage  earners  and  unmarried. 
They  hire  a  parlor  floor,  sometimes  also  a  basement  where 
they  hold  dances  for  members  and  their  friends  only.  Nearly 
all  of  them  have  back  rooms  where  gambling  may  be  carried 
ori  undisturbed  by  the  police.  Here  the  unemployed  members 
may  find  a  loafing  place.  In  the  evening  the  members  gather 
informally  with  their  tobacco  and  beer  for  a  general  good 
time,  singing,  clog-dancing,  cards  and  story-telling. 

It  is  but  a  step  from  this  the  '  social'  club  to  the  '  benevolent' 
society,  the  additional  element  being  that  each  members  pays 
weekly  dues  or  'benefits'  to  sick  members.  These  are  not 
to  be  confused  with  the  great  fraternal  organizations  existing 
throughout  the  country,  but  a  certain  relationship  is  evident. 
These  clubs  formed  by  boys  in  their  teens  grow  into  the  adult 
organizations  to  be  treated  in  the  following  chapter.  To 
show  the  similarity  reference  may  be  made  here  to  the  clubs 
of  thieves  and  pickpockets  which  are  started  by  adolescents. 
Very  frequently  the  police  trace  stolen  goods  to  the  club  rooms 
of  a  gang  of  thieves.  Pickpockets  also  have  organizations  of 
this  character.  A  short  time  ago  a  smart  fellow  caught  one 
of  this  gang  picking  his  pocket  and  held  the  man's  hand  in 
his  own  pocket.  He  was  about  to  turn  the  man  over  to  the 
police  with  the  proof,  whereupon  the  pickpocket  begged  for 
mercy  and  promised  that  our  friend  should  never  be  picked 
again.  Moreover  he  promised  that  if  at  any  time  Mr.  X 
should  need  any  assistance  he  would  get  it  by  visiting  the  club, 
and  when  released  the  pickpocket  invited  his  intended  victim 
down  to  the  club  rooms  on  a  certain  night.  At  the  appointed 
time  our  friend  called  on  the  pickpockets  and  received  a 
royal  welcome. 

As  illustrating  the  wide  spread  character  of  these  social 
clubs  the  experience  of  the  evening  recreation  centres  in  the 
New  York  Public  Schools  is  enlightening.  In  the  year  1899 
the  public  schools  were  opened  in  the  evening,  with  paid 
instructors  in  charge,  for  general  recreative  purposes.  The 
last  report  of  the  city  superintendent  (51)  gives  statistics  of 
744  clubs  which  have  come  into  the  schools  from  outside 
because  here  is  provided  a  warm  and  lighted  meeting  place. 
The  settlement  houses  have  the  same  experience  constantly. 
To  some  extent  no  doubt  the  formation  of  clubs  out  of  unor- 
ganized gangs  of  the  street  corners  has  been  stimulated  by 
this  provision  of  attractive  meeting  places  and  the  additional 
incentives  of  gymnasium,  baths  and  other  advantages,  espec- 
ially the  privilege  of  special  rates  at  summer  camps,  but  this 
stimulation  is  in  itself  inadequate  to  explain  the  existence  of 


A   STUDY   IN    SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY  363 

the  spontaneously  formed  clubs,  as  some  social  workers  have 
maintained. 

The  athletic  club  is  an  institution  of  great  significance 
among  the  boys  of  the  cities.  Such  organizations  as  the 
Irish- American,  the  Crescent  and  others  will  be  treated  under 
the  heading  of  adult  clubs.  Among  boys  and  young  men 
small  athletic  clubs  flourish  particularly  abundantly  during 
the  summer,  as  the  advertising  columns  of  the  evening  papers 
well  show.  A  single  edition  of  the  Evening  Journal  will 
contain  advertisments  for  ball  games  by  scores  of  teams.  A 
typical  notice  is  the  following:  "The  Alco  A.  C.  (uniformed) 
desires  to  schedule  games  with  15  yr.  teams  for  Sunday  after- 
noons in  July,  to  be  played  at  Pelham  Bay  Park."  Several 
of  the  papers  conduct  in  this  way  an  extensive  engagement 
bureau.  The  recreation  centres  and  playgrounds  furnish 
the  opportunity  for  competitive  contests  in  basketball,  gym- 
nasium and  track  events  as  well  as  baseball. 

Because  of  the  fact  that  no  data  except  that  furnished  by 
Sheldon  has  been  published  regarding  girls'  spontaneously 
formed  clubs,  the  writer  has  made  a  special  study  of  this  type 
of  organization.  Through  Prof.  W.  S.  Monroe  reminiscences 
were  obtained  from  189  girls  in  the  State  Normal  School  at 
Montclair,  N.  J.  Prof.  Monroe  asked  the  members  of  his 
psychology  classes  to  write  an  account  of  the  clubs  they  had 
been  instrumental  in  forming,  the  organizations  which  were 
spontaneously  formed  by  the  girls  themselves  and  independent 
of  adult  interference.  They  were  asked  to  tell  the  number  of 
members  and  their  age,  the  duration  and  the  ostensible  pur- 
pose of  the  clubs,  to  state  the  basis  of  membership,  and 
whether  or  not  there  were  any  secret  characteristics.  Of  the 
girls  in  these  classes  only  17,  or  9%  of  the  whole  number,  had 
not  been  members  of  some  spontaneously  formed  club.  Some 
had  belonged  to  more  than  i,  the  172  girls  reporting  and 
describing  261  clubs. 

The  curve  of  age  for  the  formation  of  clubs  covers  the  span 
from  the  fifth  to  the  eighteenth  years.  The  one  case  of  a  5 
year  old  girl  was  exceptional;  they  wanted  to  exclude  all 
under  7  but  her  sister's  influence  got  her  in.  Of  the  236 
cases  where  age  was  stated  the  medium  was  12,  the  average 
1 1.9.  The  curve  shows  that  the  period  when  the  formation  of 
clubs  was  most  frequent  was  9  to  14.  In  6  cases  the  age  was 
given  as  being  8  to  9.  If  we  count  these  as  being  under  9  we 
have  32  cases  of  clubs  formed  before  9,  or  13%  of  the  total. 
Only  37,  or  16%,  were  formed  after  the  age  of  14.  Of  the  total 
number  218  report  the  duration,  or  length  of  time  of  existence. 
This  varies  from  i  hour  to  5  years,  and  in  7  cases  the  clubs 


364 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 


Age  of  Girls  when 
they  formed  Clubs. 


still  exist.  The  average  duration  is  9.7  months.  209  report 
membership.  This  varies  from  3  to  50.  The  average  is  8.1. 
The  ostensible  purpose  of  these  clubs  was  declared  to  be 
dominantly  social  or  for  a  good  time  in  in  cases;  in  3  others 
this  is  a  subordinate  motive.  Sewing  is  the  chief  motive  in  3 1 
clubs,  and  a  subordinate  motive  in  31  others.  21  clubs  are 
dramatic,  4  subordinately  so ;  13  are  declared  to  be  dominantly 
philanthropic  and  19  have  this  as  an  incidental  motive;  14 
are  dominantly  literary,  4  subordinately  literary;  secrecy  is 
the  sole  motive  in  18  cases  and  in  6  cases  it  is  a  subordinate 
motive;  4  are  for  spite;  10  clubs  are  athletic;  3  are  card 
clubs;  3  have  a  religious  motive;  in  2  cases  each  the  chief 
purpose  is  exploring,  music,  languages,  and  for  the  protection 
of  animals;  in  i  case  each,  clubs  were  formed  for  the  study 
of  birds,  of  algebra,  history,  large  cities,  and  of  civics,  and  i 
was  a  postal  club,  i  an  Indian  club,  i  for  self -improvement ; 
2  had  as  a  subordinate  purpose  the  elimination  of  slang  among 
the  members.  Adding  the  dominant  and  subordinant  purpose 
and  figuring  the  percentages  we  obtain  the  following  table: 


Purpose 

Social 

Sewing 

Philan. 

Literary 

Dramatic 

Secrecy 

Athletic 

Spite 

No. 

114 

62 

32 

28 

25 

24 

10 

4 

% 

35-3 

19.2 

9.9 

8-7 

7-7 

7-4 

7-4 

1.2 

Purpose 

Cards 

Relig. 

Explor 

Music 

Language 

Animal 

Slang 

Birds 

No. 

3 

3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

I 

% 

0.9 

0.9 

0.6 

0.6 

0.6 

0.6 

0.6 

0-3 

Purpose 

Algebra 

Hist. 

Cities 

Civics 

Postal 

Indian 

Self-Imp. 

No. 

I 

I 

I 

i 

I 

I 

I 

% 

0-3 

o-3 

0-3 

o-3 

0-3 

°-3 

o-3 

Of  these  clubs  80  or  36.5%  are  secret. 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  365 

In  most  cases  these  clubs  are  but  incidents  in  the  group 
life  of  girls  already  united  by  friendship  and  the  play  activities. 
This  is  particularly  evident  in  cases  where  the  same  group 
forms  numerous  clubs,  one  succeeding  another.  One  girl 
writes:  "We  children  were  very  fond  of  forming  secret  clubs 
and  had  several  at  different  times.  Sometimes  I  or  my 
sister  belonged  to  two  different  ones  at  a  time."  Another 
girl  reports  5  different  clubs.  In  such  cases  the  club  is  not 
the  cause  of  the  group  formation  but  incidental  to  its  activity. 
In  other  cases,  of  which  the  following  is  a  good  example,  the 
club  is  the  principal  bond  of  union.  "Last  spring  I  organized 
a  club.  I  wrote  to  my  girl  friends  inviting  them  to  my  house  to 
discuss  plans  for  forming  a  club,  the  object  of  which  was  to  do 
something  to  aid  the  Fresh  Air  Fund  which  sends  poor  chil- 
dren to  the  country  in  the  summer.  The  girls  were  very  enthu- 
siastic over  the  idea  and  each  girl  agreed  to  bring  in  at  least 
one  member.  The  members  were  all  between  the  ages  of 
sixteen  and  twenty  and  were  good  workers.  After  four 
meetings  which  were  held  at  my  house  the  club  was  organized 
and  we  decided  on  different  ways  to  make  money."  Al- 
though these  girls  were  friends  they  were  not  constantly 
together  in  their  activities.  The  club  was  extra-incidental 
and  not  incidental  to  their  life.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases, 
231  in  fact,  the  descriptions  show  that  the  clubs  were  inci- 
dental to  the  play  activity;  in  the  smaller  group  of  30  cases 
the  activity  was  extra-incidental.  Of  these  30,  2  were  under 
adult  leadership,  the  only  ones  in  the  whole  study  which 
were.  The  medium  age  of  the  formation  of  these  groups 
was  15.  Only  8  were  under  14;  none  were  under  n.  The 
duration  of  these  clubs  varied  from  3  months  to  8  years. 
The  medium  duration  was  2  years,  the  average  25.6  months. 
The  membership  varied  from  4  to  120,  with  a  medium  at 
14  and  an  average  of  20,  with  an  average  deviation  of 
13.  The  primary  purposes  were  in  9  cases  social;  in  3  cases 
each  athletic,  sewing,  literary,  musical  and  religious ;  in  2  cases 
each  for  study  of  languages  and  for  card-playing,  and  i  case 
each  of  clubs  formed  for  dancing,  dramatics,  philanthropy, 
and  the  study  of  algebra  and  of  history.  Secondary  purposes 
of  philanthropy  in  3  cases,  literary  activity  in  3  cases,  social 
in  i  case  and  sewing  in  i  case  were  present.  9  of  them  were 
secret. 

As  another  form  of  approach  to  the  question  the  clubs  were 
divided  into  3  groups  according  to  age,  the  32  clubs  of  girls 
under  9  forming  the  first,  or  group  A,  the  group  of  170  formed 
by  girls  between  and  9  and  14  inclusive  constituting  group 
B,  and  the  37  cases  of  clubs  over  14  making  group  C. 


366  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

A.  The  duration  of  the  clubs  in  group  A  varied  from  i 
week  to  3  years.     The  medium  duration  was  8  months,  the 
average  9.3  months  with  an  a.  d.  of  8.  i.     The  membership 
varied  from  3  to  12.     Of  the  26  cases  where  membership  was 
stated  the  medium  was  5,  the  average  5.5  with  an  a.  d.  of  i.  4. 
One  of  the  largest  clubs  had  2  boys  as  members.     The  follow- 
ing is  the  order  of  prominence  of  the  purposes:  good  time, 
sewing,  dramatic  productions,  philanthrophy,  athletics,  spite, 
exploring,  literary  and  musical  occupations  and  bird  study. 
Of  this  group  12  had  secret  elements. 

As  an  example  of  the  type  of  club  most  common  among 
these  young  girls  the  following  may  be  quoted: 

"When  we  were  about  7  years  of  age  we  formed  a  club  called  the  'Dra- 
matic Seven.'  As  the  name  implies  the  club  was  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  having  little  'plays.'  After  we  had  given  one  play  we  changed  the 
names  to  the  'Merry  Seven'  and  gave  parties.  Originally  there  were  7 
members,  all  close  friends  to  each  other.  As  we  became  acquainted  with 
other  children  we  allowed  them  to  join  if  we  liked  them  very  much.  We 
had  a  peculiar  password,  'two  drops.'  These  words  were  selected  because 
when  joining,  each  member  had  to  go  through  an  initiation  ceremony, 
which  consisted  in  having  two  drops  of  salt  water  dropped  on  the  tongue 
through  a  medicine  dropper.  The  club  lasted  about  a  year."  Other 
characteristic  features  are  added  by  this  account:  "When  some  of  my 
friends  and  I  were  on  an  average  of  8  years  old  we  formed  a  little  sewing 
club  which  met  Saturday  afternoons.  This  little  club,  of  which  we  were 
very  proud,  was  organized  for  a  twofold  purpose.  First  we  sewed  and 
embroidered  clothes  for  our  dolls,  and  secondly  we  had  little  outings 
during  the  vacation  time  from  the  money  in  the  treasury.  The  dues  were 
three  cents  per  week  a  member,  and  every  Saturday  we  met  at  a  different 
member's  house.  One  of  the  chief  and  most  important  things  to  me 
was  the  little  spreads  which  were  served  after  the  meetings,  by  the  mother 
at  whose  house  we  held  our  meetings.  As  far  back  as  I  can  recollect  we  had 
6  members,  all  girls,  who  were  the  organizers.  No  boys  were  allowed  to 
join  our  club.  We  had  no  password  or  held  no  initiation  ceremony. 
Having  no  satisfactory  candidates,  and  two  of  our  members  having  moved, 
our  little  club  broke  up  after  having  existed  two  years." 

B.  Group  B  is  the  largest,  including  170  cases.     Duration 
was  stated  in  155  cases.     The  medium  was  5  months,  the  aver- 
age 9.27,  with  an  a.  d.  of  9.08.     The  number  of  members  in 
152  cases  had  a  medium  of  8,  an  average  of  7.7  with  an  a.  d. 
of  3.  4.     These  clubs  were  in  half  the  cases  for  a  good  time. 
The  other  purposes  were  found  to  rank  as  follows:  sewing, 
50;  philanthropic,  29;  dramatic  18;  secrecy,  17;  literary,  13, 
athletic,   4;  religious,    2;  for  the  protection   of   animals,    2; 
and  i  case  each  for  the  study  of  large  cities,  and  for  history, 
to  play  Indian,  and  for  self -improvement.     Secret  elements 
were   present  in   53   cases. 

An  illustration  of  the  social  club  of  14  year  old  girls  is  well 
represented  by  this  report : 

"About  four  years  ago  three  of  my  girl  friends  and  I  formed  a  small  club. 
We  named  it  the  Weathervane  and  each  of  us  represented  a  wind,  one 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  367 

north,  one  east,  one  south  and  one  west.  It  was  an  exclusive  organization 
and  though  we  contemplated  admitting  four  members  to  make  northeast, 
etc.,  we  never  did.  I  was  at  the  time  about  fourteen  years  old.  Our  only 
purpose  in  forming  it  was  to  have  a  good  time.  We  met  on  Friday  evenings 
and  always  made  candy.  Sometimes  we  played  games  also.  Our  dues 
were  five  cents  a  week,  and  they  were  used  only  to  have  a  good  time.  The 
club  lasted  for  about  two  years  when  it  was  broken  up  because  one  of  the 
members  went  to  Europe.  During  the  time  it  lasted  we  had  one  party  to 
which  only  four  were  invited.  We  went  on  little  picnics,  but  only  by  our- 
selves. It  was  not  a  secret  society  so  we  had  no  password  but  we  had 
what  we  called  a  club  call.  It  was  'North,  south,  east  or  west,  which  one 
do  you  like  the  best!'  We  also  had  a  club  song  which  one  of  the  girls  com- 
posed. Our  colors  were  green  and  gold  and  to  this  day  we  are  all  loyal 
to  them.  We  were  going  to  get  club  pins  but  the  club  broke  up  before 
we  could  decide  on  them.  We  kept  a  book  in  which  the  secretary  always 
wrote  up  the  minutes  of  each  meeting.  We  had  election  of  officers  about 
once  every  two  or  three  months.  Of  course  each  member  was  an  officer." 

The  following  pictures  the  typical  sewing  society  : 

"At  the  age  of  eleven  another  gifl  and  I  organized  a  little  club  for  the 
purpose  of  making  Xmas  presents  as  well  as  for  pleasure.  The  club  con- 
sisted of  only  eight  members  and  no  other  person  was  allowed  to  join.  We 
called  ourselves  the  'Sewing  Club'  and  wore  black  and  orange  rosettes  in 
order  to  make  people  ask  questions.  We  met  at  each  person's  house, 
sewed,  had  little  refreshments  and  had  a  general  good  time.  We  met  once 
a  month.  The  society  only  lasted  about  four  or  five  months.  I  remember 
I  was  secretary  of  the  organization." 

This  portrays  a  dramatic  club : 

"At  the  age  of  thirteen  I  with  five  other  companions  about  the  same  age 
formed  a  club  which  we  called  the  'Dramatic  Club.'  We  would  read  all  the 
children's  stories  we  could  get  and  then  attempted  to  stage  those  which  we 
thought  were  best  suited  for  the  purpose.  New  members  were  taken  in 
according  to  what  was  needed  in  the  cast,  and  only  those  were  admitted 
who  we  thought  had  the  ability.  It  was  not  a  secret  organization  and  we 
had  no  password.  The  club  lasted  for  one  summer  and  disbanded  when 
school  began." 

A  typical  club  with  philanthropic  motivation  is  thus  de- 
scribed : 

"When  I  was  about  twelve  years  old  I  belonged  to  a  secret  society  called 
the  S.  B.  C.  The  club  was  formed  to  make  scrap-books  for  a  hospital, 
which  the  sister  of  one  of  the  members  was  interested  in.  Two  of  us 
formed  the  club  and  we  chose  three  other  girls  whom  we  asked  to  join. 
This  made  five  of  us  and  no  one  else  could  join.  We  had  neither  password 
nor  ritual.  The  club  lasted  about  a  year  or  perhaps  a  little  longer. ' ' 

What  we  have  called  a  literary  club  includes  such  as  this : 
"One  voluntary  organization  to  which  I  belonged  when  about  thirteen 
was  a  reading  club.  A  list  of  good  books  was  arranged,  each  of  which  was 
read  before  the  club  by  each  member  in  turn  and  then  discussed.  Our 
object  was  to  read  good  books  and  become  acquainted  with  the  life  of 
the  authors.  New  members  were  freely  taken  in  until  we  had  twelve; 
that  was  the  final  number.  We  continued  our  club  for  nearly  a  year. 
All  proceedings  were  kept  secret." 

C.  Of  the  37  clubs  formed  by  girls  over  14  years  of  age, 
7  were  still  in  existence  at  time  of  writing.  The  reporters 


368  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

being  juniors  and  seniors  in  normal  school  may  be  judged  to 
be  at  least  18.  Figuring  on  the  length  of  time  these  clubs 
have  actually  existed  to  date  of  reporting,  the  medium  duration 
in  months  is  12,  the  average  20.3  with  an  a.  d.  of  12.1.  This 
is  figured  from  the  3 1  cases  reporting  duration.  The  member- 
ship varied  from  5  to  40;  the  medium  was  10,  the  average 
12.6,  with  an  a.  d.  of  6.7.  Here  also  there  were  31  cases. 
These  were  mostly  social  clubs.  The  other  purposes  in  order 
of  importance  were  dramatic,  literary,  athletic,  for  the  study 
of  a  foreign  language,  card-playing,  sewing,  religion,  philan- 
thropy, music,  algebra,  civics,  saving  of  postal  cards  and  the 
elimination  of  slang.  8  of  these  were  secret. 

A  comparison  of  the  3  groups  shows  that  the  duration  of  the 
clubs  in  groups  A  and  B  was  very  nearly  the  same.  For 
group  A  it  was  9.3  with  an  a.  d.  of  8.8;  for  group  B  it  was 
9.27  with  an  a.  d.  of  9.08.  Group  C  however  shows  a  great 
increase,  the  duration  here  being  20.3  with  an  a.  d.  of  12.1. 
The  membership  shows  a  slight  increase  with  age,  the  figures 
in  the  3  cases  being  5.  5,  7.7,  and  12.6.  A  comparison  of  the 
purposes  and  activities  shows  that  the  motive  of  social 
pleasure  occupies  approximately  the  same  prominence  in  each. 
Sewing  occupies  the  same  position  in  A  and  B  but  it  drops 
considerably  in  C.  The  dramatic  motive  appears  in  nearly 
the  same  proportion  of  cases  in  each  period.  Of  the  32  in- 
stances in  which  the  philanthropic  motive  appears  all  but  6 
are  in  clubs  under  13;  i.  e.,  55%  of  the  cases  being  under  13 
have  81%  of  the  cases  of  philanthropic  motivation.  The 
literary  motive  remains  of  the  same  prominence  in  the  3  groups. 
The  athletic  purpose  which  is  insignificant,  evident  in  but 
7  cases,  appears  at  10  and  over.  The  motive  of  secrecy  appears 
as  a  dominant  one  in  16  clubs  and  as  a  concomitant  or  subor- 
dinate one  in  10  others.  Moreover  82  have  some  secret 
characteristics.  The  ages  when  secrecy  is  a  motive  for  forming 
clubs  is  from  8  to  14.  In  one  case  no  age  was  given.  Of  the 
25  others,  18  or  72%  were  under  n  years  of  age,  while  only 
21.4%  of  all  the  clubs  were  under  n.  All  were  under  15; 
half  of  them  were  at  9  and  10.  Of  those  clubs  having  some 
secret  elements  the  age  was  given  in  all  but  2.  There  were 
31  under  n;  i.  e.,  38.8%.  This  illustrates  the  kind  of  club 
in  which  the  purpose  is  secrecy  : 

"When  I  was  ten  years  of  age  six  little  girl  friends  and  myself  formed  a 
secret  club,  which  we  called  W.  N.  T.,  meaning— we  never  tell.  The  club 
was  of  the  most  secret  character;  everything  was  whispered  in  order 
to  make  it  more  mysterious.  We  had  no  passward  but  always  spoke  to 
each  other  m  'hog  Latin.'  The  membership  of  the  club  was  most  ex- 
clusive since  we  took  in  only  those  whom  we  especially  liked  and  who 
would  let  us  run  things  the  way  we  wished.  The  only  object  we  had  in 
arming  the  club  was  to  keep  certain  other  children  whom  we  knew  guess- 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

ing  when  we  spoke  in  whispers.  The  club  lasted  for  about  six  months. 
One  of  the  exclusive  members  told  the  name  of  the  club  and  this  was  the 
cause  of  its  finally  being  dissolved."  To  represent  the  sort  of  club  meant 
when  we  say  that  it  had  some  secret  elements  though  not  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  secrecy  as  the  above,  the  following  may  be  quoted:  "I 
belonged  to  a  club  of  sixteen  girls  and  boys.  The  object  was  to  give 
performances.  Our  meetings  were  secret  and  our  password  was  'Bobkin.' 
We  used  to  give  little  plays  only  for  our  own  amusement  and  nobody 
outside  ever  came ....  This  club  lasted  one  summer. 

The  athletic  clubs  were  evenly  distributed  through  the  dif- 
ferent ages.  The  4  '  spite '  clubs  were  under  12.5  years.  Those 
formed  for  playing  cards,  for  studying  history,  language, 
civics  and  algebra  were  formed  after  14,  as  was  the  i  for  self- 
improvement.  The  kindness  to  animals  motive  appeared 
under  13,  as  did  the  3  formed  for  bird-study,  the  study  of 
cities  and  for  playing  Indian.  The  religious  motive  appeared 
at  n,  12  and  17.  Self -improvement  appeared  in  i  case,  at  14. 

As  to  frequency  of  meeting,  103  furnish  data.  Of  these, 
3  do  not  furnish  the  age  of  members.  In  10  cases  meetings 
were  more  frequent  than  once  a  week;  in  63  they  were  once 
a  week,  and  in  24  less  than  once  a  week.  Of  those  meeting 
more  frequently  than  once  a  week  all  but  3  are  under  1 2  years 
in  age;  all  but  3  of  those  meeting  less  frequently  than  once 
a  week  are  over  1 1 ;  all  are  10  or  over. 

Data  was  furnished  for  115  clubs  as  to  the  basis  of  member- 
ship. In  42  cases  the  membership  qualification  was  just  the 
fact  of  being  playmates  or  neighbors;  37  were  described  as 
cliques;  the  basis  was  attendance  at  a  certain  school  or 
membership  in  a  certain  class  in  12  cases;  in  12,  new  members 
were  voted  into  the  club,  in  i  case  by  majority,  in  7  by  unani- 
mous vote,  and  in  the  others  the  statement  merely  was  that 
new  members  were  voted  on ;  in  9  a  literary  or  musical  test 
was  given;  in  i  the  qualification  was  the  possession  of  pretty 
clothes;  in  2  cases  the  club  was  declared  to  be  open.  Group- 
ing all  those  whom  we  may  be  reasonably  sure  were  exclusive, 
i.  e.,  the  cliques  and  those  admitting  only  by  unanimous  vote 
and  the  i  having  the  qualification  of  dress,  the  total  amounts 
to  45,  or  39%. of  the  whole.  Comparing  the  number  of  cases 
of  clique  organization  for  each  age  with  the  total  number 
of  clubs  at  that  age,  the  following  percentages  are  obtained, 
corresponding  respectively  to  the  ages  7  to  18:  14,  19,  13,  n, 
10,  16,  27,  27,  33,  20,  33,  100.  Although  a  rise  is  evident  in  the 
frequency  of  cliques  at  13,  the  difference  between  the  earlier 
and  later  years  is  not  very  remarkable.  The  last  figure,  it  is 
to  be  observed,  is  for  the  only  club  formed  at  that  age. 

From  a  section  of  the  country  entirely  isolated  from  that 
whence  these  normal  school  girls  came  have  been  obtained  data 
of  a  similar  nature.  Miss  Clare  Lyon,  Principal  of  the  I/idger- 


370  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

wood,  N.  Dak.,  High  School,  asked  the  members  of  her 
English  classes  to  describe  what  clubs,  if  any,  they  had  ever 
been  members  of.  The  instructions  were  similar  to  those 
Prof.  Monroe  gave.  There  were  27  members  in  the  Senior  and 
Junior  classes,  of  whom  23  were  taking  English,  18  girls  and 

5  boys.     All  but  2  of  these  had  belonged  to  some  sort  of  club 
or  'bunch,'  but  9  of  these  show  adult  leadership.     The  others, 
9  girls  and  3  boys   described  spontaneously   formed   clubs. 
Out  of  1 8  girls,  therefore,  50%  had  been  members  of  spontane- 
ously formed  clubs,     The  ages  at  the  time  of  formation  varied 
from  9  to  14,  the  number  of  members  from  4  to  15,  with  an 
average  of  6.     The  average  duration  was  7  months.     The 
purpose  of  organization  was  predominantly  for  a  good  time, 
lesser  in  importance  being  the  purposes  of  sewing,  card  play- 
ing, reading,  dramatic  productions  and  philanthropy.     One 
question  asked  was  their  preference:    to  have  a  chum  or  to 
belong  to  a  club.     Replies  were  received  from  n,  9  of  whom 
preferred  to  belong  to  a  club;  2    preferred  having  a  chum. 
The  fact  was  disclosed  that  there  was  no  conflict  between  the 
two  sorts  of  relationship  however.     The  typical  situation  may 
be  described  thus  in  the  words  of  one  of  the  girls:  "Here  in 
this  town  I  have  belonged  for  quite  a  while  to  what  is  known  as 
the  '  Bunch,'  and  besides  have  always  had  one  particular  girl  as 
my  chum."     From  various  sections  of  the  country  have  been 
gathered  other  data  of  a  confirmatory  nature  but  of  too  dis- 
connected a  character  to  be  classified. 

It  will  be  well  here  to  summarize  the  facts  thus  far  presented 
regarding  boys'  and  girls'  group  activities.     At  the  age  of  5  or 

6  children  get  together  in  their  play.    These  groups  are  roughly 
organized  and  they  participate  in  unco-operative  and  unor- 
ganized games  which  gradually  shape  themselves  into  definite 
games    with    rules,    this    germinating    period    lasting    until 
puberty.     This  gang  activity  may  continue  until  maturity 
unless  the  group  is  organized  into  a  club.     The  club  makes  its 
appearance  as  early  as  7  or  8,  both  with  boys  and  girls.     Of 
the  spontaneously  formed  clubs  reported  by  Sheldon  45%  were 
of  girls.    Of  the  girls  in  Prof .  Monroe's  classes  91%  had  been 
members  of  clubs.   In  a  personal  letter  from  Miss  C.  I.  MacColl, 
of  Christodora  House,  a  settlement  on  the  lower  east  side  of 
New  York,  the  statement  is  made  that  "girls  in  our  neighbor- 
hood group  as  do  the  boys.    In  the  past  three  months  I  have  had 
applications  from  fifteen  different  groups  of  girls  from  fourteen 
to  twenty  years  of  age  wishing  to  come  to  Christodora  as 
organized  clubs.       The  ages  when  clubs  were  most  frequently 
found  among  boys  were  10  to  14;  this  corresponds  with  the 
time  when  they  are  most  often  formed  among  girls      After 
that  age  they  do  not  cease  to  be  members  of  clubs  but  they 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  371 

usually  join  organizations  which  they  find  already  in  existence, 
the  permanent  adult  or  student  clubs.  The  number  in  the 
gang  averages  9  or  10.  We  have  no  figures  on  the  size  of  the 
boys'  club,  but  as  the  gang  organizes  itself  into  the  club  we  may 
infer  that  the  two  are  the  same  size.  The  girls'  clubs  were 
found  to  average  8  members,  they  increase  in  size  with  age, 
the  adolescent  clubs  having  an  average  of  12.  In  external 
formation,  then,  boys'  and  girls'  clubs  are  very  similar.  The 
difference  between  them  is  in  their  activities  and  purposes.  This 
correlates  closely  with  the  fact  that  clubs  formed  before  the  age 
of  13  or  14  are  but  incidental  to  the  regular  group  activity. 
Nine  tenths  of  the  clubs  reported  by  the  normal  school  girls 
were  of  this  character.  Boys'  clubs  spend  their  time  mostly 
in  physical  activity;  girls  have  clubs  for  sewing,  dramatic 
productions,  tea  parties  and  social  good  times.  Girls  say  that 
they  form  clubs  for  a  good  time;  boys  say  that  they  are  for 
baseball,  which  is  saying  the  same  thing  since  boys  play  ball  for 
a  good  time.  The  activities  of  either  sex  could  be  carried 
on  without  the  club.  In  girls  the  exclusive  clique  spirit  is 
stronger  than  in  boys.  Secrecy  is  prominent  among  girls 
under  n  years;  it  is  not  so  strong  among  boys.  After  the 
age  of  14,  clubs  appear  which  are  not  mere  incidents  in  the 
play  life;  a  new  basis  of  membership  is  introduced. 

Chap.  III.     Student  Societies 

Student  life  offers  a  volume  of  material  for  the  study  of 
social  psychology  that  has  scarcely  been  opened.  Nowhere 
can  the  psychology  of  later  adolescence  be  more  profitably 
studied  than  in  the  group  life  of  students.  Pres.  Hall  says: 
"Student  life  is  perhaps  the  best  of  all  fields,  un worked  though 
it  be,  for  studying  the  natural  history  of  adolescence.  Its 
modern  record  is  over  eight  hundred  years  old  and  is  marked 
with  the  signature  of  every  age,  yet  its  essential  features  do  not 
vary"  (35,  p.  399).  The  17  pages  following  this  statement 
in  "Adolescence"  summarizes  a  great  many  of  the  facts  of 
these  student  societies  from  the  nations  of  Bologna  and  Paris 
to  the  modern  college  fraternity.  It  is  necessary  for  us  in  this 
study,  so  far  as  the  presentation  of  data  is  concerned, to  confine 
ourselves  to  present-day  American  societies.  First  to  be 
considered  are  the  societies  of  the  preparatory  and  high  schools. 

The  first  fact  to  be  observed  is  that  the  conditions  prevailing 
in  the  public  high  schools  are  very  different  from  those  found 
to  exist  in  private  boarding  schools  or  the  preparatory  depart- 
ments of  colleges.  In  the  latter  case  the  organizations  among 
the  students  approximate  quite  closely  those  in  the  college. 
The  group  organizations  chronically  present  in  the  high  school 


372  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

are  the  class,  the  literary  and  debating  society,  the  athletic 
association,  the  glee  club  and  orchestra,  and  less  frequently 
mandolin,  dramatic,  art,  camera,  craft  and  science  clubs,  pub- 
lication boards  and  fraternities.  Generally  the  classes  organize 
in  a  rather  loose  way  and  for  special  occasions,  for  the  further- 
ance of  class  and  school  interests.  In  some  cases  only  the  senior 
class  thus  organizes  with  officers  and  committees  and  perhaps  a 
constitution,  for  the  purpose  of  managing  the  commencement 
affairs.  Besides  the  clubs  distinctly  of  high  school  students 
smaller  group  organizations  are  formed,  as  was  shown  in  the 
preceding  chapter.  These  are  not  characteristic  of  the  high 
school  but  of  that  period  of  adolescence.  The  literary  and 
musical  societies,  except  in  the  larger  places,  are  as  a  rule 
under  the  directing  hand,  if  not  propelled  by  one  of  the  instruct- 
ors. The  athletic  clubs,  at  least  among  boys,  are  more  truly 
spontaneous.  In  this  case,  however,  the  faculty  have  usually 
found  it  advisable  to  associate  themselves  in  an  advisory 
capacity  and  often  as  financial  managers. 

The  last  twenty  years  has  witnessed  the  formation  of  secret 
fraternities  in  the  high  school.  As  to  their  prevalence  at 
present  it  is  only  possible  to  approximate  as  there  are  no 
figures.  Baird  merely  says:  "They  are  numerous,  but  have, 
except  in  a  very  few  instances,  little  elements  of  stability,  and 
in  fact  are  imitations  of  the  mere  externals  of  the  college 
fraternity  system  without  really  grasping  or  living  up  to  its 
principles  of  brotherhood  and  mutual  helpfulness"  (6,  p.  V). 
The  difficulty  of  determining  their  prevalence  is  because  first, 
in  but  half  the  cases  are  they  national  organizations,  and  second 
because  of  the  circumstance  that,  on  account  of  the  opposition 
to  them  on  the  part  of  the  school  authorities,  secrecy  is  a  means 
of  protection.  The  report  in  November,  1904,  of  a  committee 
appointed  by  Pres.  Harper  gives  the  best  idea  of  their  prev- 
alence in  the  Middle  West.  Questionnaires  were  sent  to 
464  schools;  replies  were  received  from  306;  of  these  "about 
170  had  no  fraternities"  (73,  p.  3).  Complete  answers  were 
received  from  only  19  private  and  71  public  schools.  The 
private  schools,  having  an  enrollment  of  2,207,  had  a  fraternity 
membership  of  796  or  36.06  %.  The  71  public  schools,  enrolling 
54,827  had  a  fraternity  membership  of  4,523  or  8.35%.  The 
number  of  fraternities  per  high  school  varied  from  i  to  6; 
in  many  schools  there  was  but  i  sorority.  Two  exceptional 
cases  were  noted;  the  San  Francisco  Girls'  High  School  had  7 
sororities;  The  Central  High  School  of  Toledo,  O.,  had  9 
fraternities  and  5  sororities.  The  average  fraternity  member- 
ship was  found  to  be  30  whether  the  school  contained  100  or 
1,500  pupils.  The  only  difference  is  that  in  the  larger  schools 
there  are  more  fraternities  (73).  A  couple  years  earlier 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  373 

Gilbert  B.  Morrison  sent  out  inquiries  to  200  high  school 
principals  in  the  largest  cities  of  the  country.  Answers  were 
received  from  185;  of  these  87  reported  experience  with 
fraternities,  and  98  reported  having  had  no  experience  (55). 
The  conditions  in  New  England  in  1904  were  reported  by  a 
committee  of  which  C.  T.  C.  Whitcomb  was  chairman.  He 
received  replies  from  244  out  of  301  requests  for  information 
sent  to  towns  in  New  England  and  to  a  number  of  large  cities 
throughout  the  country.  Fraternities  were  reported  as  existing 
in  72  schools  (86).  A  committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  sent 
out  a  few  questionnaires  in  1908.  They  received  replies  from 
48  high  schools  in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  Of  these 
15  have  fraternities;  33  have  not.  The  average  membership 
in  these  societies  is  26  (89).  All  of  these  reports  record  the 
opposition  to  the  fraternity  in  the  high  school.  Indiana, 
Kansas  and  Minnesota  by  legislative  acts  in  1907  sought  to 
abolish  them.  These  papers  name  22  cities  that  legislated 
against  the  fraternity. 

College  societies  are  more  familiarly  known.  As  Sheldon 
pointed  out  in  his  book  on  college  societies,  where  the  elective 
system  has  been  introduced,  it  destroyed  the  autonomy  of  the 
class,  which  had  until  about  1880  been  an  important  factor 
in  the  social  life  of  the  American  college  (68,  p.  196).  In  the 
smaller  colleges  the  class  organization  is  still  quite  strong. 
Through  the  machinery  of  its  constitution,  officers,  and  com- 
mittees it  conducts  'proms,'  banquets,  parties,  the  year-book, 
dramatics,  etc.,  and  crystallizes  a  class  spirit  which  vents  itself 
in  the  inter-class  athletic  and  debating  contest  and  develops  a 
subtle  loyalty  to  'noughty-several.'  To  enumerate  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  organizations  which  students  form  would  be  to 
duplicate  every  type  of  adult  club  and  then  add  a  good  many 
others  such  as  students  only  form. 

Michigan  University  has  a  total  of  176  student  organizations 
including  20  fraternities  in  the  literary  department,  13  in  the 
professional  schools,  9  sororities,  each  having  its  own  house, 
10  sectional  clubs,  6  literary  and  debating  societies,  6  musical 
clubs,  dramatic,  athletic,  military,  honor  societies,  class 
organizations,  press  and  publishments,  and  general  university 
clubs,  such  as  medical,  socialist,  woman's  suffrage  and  Chris- 
tian associations.  Wisconsin  University  has  130  such  organi- 
zations (71,  pp.  208,  228). 

A  few  of  these  types  of  club  deserve  special  attention.  The 
last  edition  of  Baird's  handbook  on  secret  fraternities  (6) 
issued  in  1905  names  31  general  chapters  for  men,  17  for 
women,  50  professional  fraternities,  (about  10%  of  whose 
membership  is  duplicated  in  the  general  fraternities)  and  local 
fraternities  to  the  number  of  70  for  men  and  47  for  women, 


374  A   STUDY   IN    SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

with  a  total  membership  of  242,501.  The  World  Almanac  of 
1 91 1  (88)  gives  larger  numbers  in  each  case,  the  total  being 
329,417.  It  is  evident  that  this  number  includes  alumni, 
as  the  total  student  body  in  universities,  colleges  and  technical 
schools  in  the  United  States  is  only  289,204  (88)  and  that  in 
Canadian  schools  is  only  10,000.  Besides  the  secret  fraterni- 
ties, there  are  general  honorary  societies  bearing  Greek  letter 
names.  All  are  copies  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa  which  now  has  a 
membership  of  15,000.  The  peculiar  features  of  the  college 
fraternity  are:  (i)  their  residential  character;  they  provide 
a  substitute  for  the  home  atmosphere  by  furnishing  a  house 
exclusively  for  the  residence  of  the  society  members;  (2)  their 
secret  features;  (3)  the  extreme  care  taken  to  choose  members 
of  congenial  interests. 

Religious  organizations  are  found  in  all  colleges.  That  of 
widest  extent  is  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  which  numbers  758  organiza- 
tions with  a  membership  of  about  60,000.  The  eastern  schools 
have  other  religious  societies  and  denominational  clubs. 
Athletic  associations,  to  which  the  greatest  part  of  the  students 
belong,  are  universal.  Their  purpose  is  to  furnish  financial 
and  moral  support  for  the  teams.  Lack  of  space  forbids 
further  details  as  to  student  organizations.  Pres.  Hall,  in  one 
of  his  remarkable  sentences  of  20  lines,  summarizes  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  clubs  found  in  colleges  (35,  p.  416). 

Chap.  IV.    Adults  Clubs 

Much  valuable  data  would  be  provided  for  sociological 
as  well  as  for  psychological  interpretation  of  the  club  were 
we  to  trace  the  history  of  its  development.  As  student  life 
is  the  great  laboratory  for  the  study  of  later  adolescent  social 
nature,  so  the  club  life  of  adults  reveals  the  working  of  the 
social  processes  of  maturity.  The  difficulty  of  this  task  is 
that  there  can  be  found  no  beginning  until  the  earliest  human 
life  is  unearthed  and  laid  out  for  inspection,  and  even  then  we 
would  be  referred  to  higher  animal  life.  All  that  the  limits 
of  this  thesis  will  permit  is  an  outline  sketch  of  the  growth 
of  the  club  in  America,  with  a  presentation  of  the  main  facts 
regarding  the  most  prominent  representatives  of  the  types 
now  existing. 

In  1800  there  were  but  few  clubs  in  this  country.  Freemasonry  had 
been  introduced  from  England  between  1723  and  1740.  In  1743  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  was  formed.  jjn  1764-5  the  Sons  of  Liberty, 
a  secret  political  organization,  was  founded.  The  New  York  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  the  first  prominent  representative  of  the  business  club,  was 
organized  in  1768.  The  date  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  was  1776.  The 
Pennsylvania  Prison  Society,  1787,  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
1791,  and  the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  completed  the 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY    ,       375 

list  of  important  learned  societies.  The  officers  of  the  disbanding  army 
formed  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  in  1783.  As  a  corresponding  and  rival 
society  was  formed  the  Society  of  Tammany  in  1789.  The  first  woman's 
club  on  record  was  the  Female  Society  for  Relief  and  Employment  of  the 
Poor,  Philadelphia,  1 798.  In  the  next  30  years  the  growth  was  not  very  rapid. 
The  principal  organizations  of  this  period  were  the  following:  The  New 
York  Society  of  Journeymen  Shipwrights,  1803,  had  some  of  the  character- 
istics of  the  labor  union.  The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions,  1810,  started  the  great  missionary  movement.  The 
Society  of  Red  Men,  1813,  developed  out  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty.  Odd- 
Fellowship  was  introduced  from  England  in  1819.  1826  was  the  birth 
year  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design  and  the  Society  of  the  War  of  1812. 

The  period  from  1830  to  the  Civil  War  saw  the  birth  of  many  reform 
movements  which  worked  through  clubs.  Women  now  make  their  influ- 
ence felt  as  never  before  in  history.  Labor  unions  sprang  up,  and  political 
clubs  were  numerous.  They  had  no  small  influence  in  crystallizing  action  in 
support  of  the  principles  that  rent  the  union.  The  leading  women's  organi- 
zations of  this  period  were  the  Ladies'  Association  for  Education  of  Females, 
Jacksonville,  111.,  1833;  the  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society  and  Home  for  the 
Friendless,  1834;  the  Daughters  of  Temperance,  1840-50;  the  National 
Woman's  Rights  Society,  Nauvoo,  111.,  1842;  the  Ladies'  Physiological 
Institute  of  Boston,  1848,  and  the  Woman's  Equal  Rights  Union,  Seneca 
Falls,  N.  Y.,  1848.  Many  local  labor  unions  were  organized,  and  the 
first  national  union,  The  International  Typographical  Union,  1850.  Other 
unions  of  more  than  local  importance  were  the  New  England  Workingmen's 
Association,  the  New  England  Protective  Union,  and  the  Industrial  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  all  formed  in  1855.  The  National  Education 
Association  was  started  hi  1857.  Several  secret  societies  of  a  fraternal 
nature  were  organized  and  two  were  introduced  from  England, — the 
Ancient  Order  of  Foresters,  1832,  and  the  Ancient  Order  of  Druids  in  1839. 
In  1842  the  Sons  of  Temperance  and  in  1843  B'naiB'ruth,  a  Jewish  secret 
society,  were  organized.  There  were  over  forty  learned  societies  formed 
during  the  period,  principal  among  them  being  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1857.  There  were  several  important 
political  societies  of  short  duration. 

By  far  the  great  majority  of  societies  existing  to-day  have  been  formed 
since  the  Civil  War.  The  fraternal  insurance  society  movement  may  be 
said  to  have  been  begun  by  the  Ancient  Order  of  United  Workmen,  in 
1868.  Since  that  date  have  been  formed  over  600  on  a  similar  pattern  (54). 
The  same  year  was  the  birth  year  of  the  'woman's  club'  movement, 
starting  with  Sorosis  of  New  York  and  the  New  England  Woman's  Club  of 
Boston.  In  1868  the  National  Labor  Union,  formed  two  years  earlier, 
reached  an  aggregate  membership  of  640,000.  Though  it  declined,  its  task 
was  taken  up  by  the  Knights  of  Labor,  founded  in  1869;  its  aggregate 
membership  was  702,924  in  1888  (40,  p.  379).  This  organization  in  turn 
lost  power  and  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  1881,  took  up  the  mantle. 
The  scientific  societies  as  well  began  their  modern  epoch  after  the  war.  The 
great  organization  of  farmers  began  in  1867  when  the  National  Grange  of 
the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  was  founded.  The  growth  of  societies  has 
continued  constantly,  each  year  adding  a  greater  number  of  new  organiza- 
tions. Meyer  says  that  of  the  568  fraternal  orders,  the  date  of  whose 
organization  could  be  obtained,  78  only  were  formed  before  1880,  124 
between  1880  and  1890,  136  between  1890  and  1895,  and  230  between  1895 
and  1900.  The  number  of  clubs  of  all  kinds  continues  to  grow  by  geometri- 
cal progression.  The  Handbook  of  Learned  Societies  (16)  gives  the  dates 
of  practically  all  the  learned  societies  in  America,  except  those  in  the 
fields  of  medicine,  agriculture,  local  bar  and  teachers'  associations,  leagues 
for  civic  improvement,  charitable  organizations  and  patriotic  societies. 
Detailed  data  are  given  for  431  national  and  local  societies  of  the  United 


376  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

States.  Of  these  5  were  formed  in  the  period  1740-1800;  n,  1800-30; 
49,  1830-60;  24,  1860-70;  54,1870-80;  90,  1880-90;  114,  1890-1900; 
84,  1900-08. 

Considering  more  specifically  the  different  types  of  clubs 
now  found  in  America,  we  may  commence  with  the  fraternal 
order. 

The  aggregate  membership  in  secret  societies  according  to  the  World 
Almanac  (88)  is  over  1 1,000,000.  This  does  not  constitute  one  eighth  of  the 
population,  as  might  be  supposed,  because  most  of  these  people  belong 
to  several  societies.  The  age  of  admission  to  membership  is  as  low  as 
15  in  a  few,  is  1 6  in  a  great  many  and  18  will  admit  to  the  majority  of 
fraternal  orders.  The  oldest  of  these  is  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Society 
of  Free  and  Accepted  Masons,  which  has  existed  in  its  present  form  since 
1717  (76).  Outstripping  Freemasonry  in  membership  is  the  Independent 
Order  of  Odd  Fellows.  It  dates  from  1739  in  England.  Two  other 
important  societies  were  imported,  the  Foresters  and  the  Druids.  The 
Knights  of  Pythias,  the  Elks,  Knights  of  Columbus,  Order  of  Good  Tem- 
plars, and  the  Sons  of  Templars  added  to  the  four  above,  make  up  the  group 
of  societies  which  do  not  have  insurance  features.  Their  aggregate  size  was 
hi  1907  four  fifths  as  large  as  those  having  insurance  features.  This  group 
may  be  classified  as  charitable,  benevolent,  religious  or  philosophical  and 
mystical. 

The  majority  group  of  fraternal  societies  pay  sick,  death,  disability  or 
other  benefits.  The  largest  of  these  is  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America, 
founded  in  1884;  it  now  has  over  1,000,000  members.  The  purpose  of  all 
these  fraternal  orders,  whether  with  or  without  insurance  features,  is  mutual 
helpfulness.  In  organization  they  have  the  peculiar  features  introduced  by 
secrecy,  ritualism  and  mystic  rites. 

As  was  said  above,  the  'women's  club'  movement  started 
in  1868.  We  use  the  quotation  marks  to  designate  the  pecu- 
liar meaning  attached  to  this  type  of  woman's  society,  which 
Mrs.  Harper  says  women ' '  formed  purely  for  their  own  recrea- 
tion and  improvement"  (75,  p.  1043).  This  does  not  char- 
acterize the  woman's  movement  as  a  whole,  however,  and  the 
societies  which  started  with  this  narrow  spirit  "widened  by 
degrees  into  a  study  of  practical  matters  related  to  law  and 
economics,"  so  that  to-day  the  General  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs,  representing  a  membership  of  over  500,000,  has  com- 
mittees on  art,  child  labor,  civics,  civil  service  reform,  educa- 
tion, forestry,  household  economics,  industry,  legislation, 
library  extension,  literature,  pure  food,  reciprocity  and  other 
topics.  Besides  this  large  federation  there  are  many  other 
organizations  of  women,  only  a  few  of  which  can  be  mentioned. 

The  National  and  the  American  Woman's  Suffrage  Associations  were 
founded  in  1869  and  united  in  1889.  The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  was  founded  in  1874  for  securing  the  abolition  of  the  liquor  traffic. 
Its  scope  of  work  is  so  broad  as  to  require  40  departments.  Its  membership, 
including  children's  societies  is  about  half  a  million.  Other  societies  of 
national  importance  constituted  entirely  of  women  might  be  mentioned 
in  almost  every  field  of  endeavor.  Some  of  these  will  be  mentioned  in 
the  following  paragraphs.  Fraternal  orders  have  female  almost  as  fre- 
quently as  male  members. 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  377 

Philanthropy  as  an  organized  movement  of  national  scope 
culminated  in  1873  when  the  first  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction  was  held. 

This  organization  now  numbers  between  2,400  and  2,500  members,  and 
represents  all  phases  of  philanthropic  and  charitable  work.  There  are 
several  societies  working  for  international  peace.  The  Lake  Mohonk 
Conference  on  International  Arbitration  was  founded  in  1895.  The  National 
Municipal  League,  1894,  enrolled  in  1909  in  168  organizations  reporting 
163,473  members.  The  American  National  Red  Cross  Society  was  incor- 
porated in  1905.  It  is  a  systematically  organized  body  for  furnishing  relief 
hi  disasters  of  national  scope.  In  1911  it  has  a  membership  of  15,000, 
organized  into  local  chapters,  and  has  an  institutional  affiliation  with  15 
associated  charities.  The  National  Civic  Federation  founded  in  1900-01 
has  as  its  purpose  the  co-operation  of  the  best  brains  of  the  country  in  an 
educational  movement  toward  solving  some  of  the  great  problems  related 
to  social  and  industrial  progress.  It  has  an  executive  committee  of  over 
50  leading  representatives  of  capital,  labor  and  the  public  at  large.  The 
National  Conservation  Association  was  organized  in  1909  to  fight  for  the 
prompt  and  orderly  development  of  our  natural  resources.  It  is  a  separate 
organization  from  the  National  Conservation  Congress,  formed  the  same 
year,  though  the  two  work  harmoniously. 

Of  slightly  different  nature,  as  far  as  basis  of  membership 
is  concerned  are  the  educational  associations. 

The  National  Education  Association,  formed  in  1857  as  the  National 
Teachers'  Association,  assumed  its  present  name  in  1870.  This  is  the 
official  society  of  the  teaching  profession,  and  has  as  its  purpose  the  eleva- 
tion and  advancement  of  the  profession.  On  Dec.  i,  1909,  it  had  a  member- 
ship of  10,964.  The  Chautauqua  Literary  and  Scientific  Circle  was  founded 
in  1878  with  the  aim  of  continuing  the  influence  of  the  Chautauqua 
Assembly  throughout  the  year  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Since  that  time 
more  than  260,000  members  have  been  enrolled.  The  Association  of  Colle- 
giate Alumnae  was  formed  in  1882  for  the  purpose  of  uniting  the  alumnae 
of  different  institutions  for  practical  educational  work.  Dec.  i,  1909,  the 
number  of  regular  members  was  4,377. 

More  specific  in  character  are  the  societies  for  science, 
literature,  and  art. 

The  American  Association  for  the  Advance  ment  of  Science  had  its  first 
meeting  in  1848  in  pursuance  of  a  resolution  adopted  in  1847  by  the  Asso- 
ciation of  American  Geologists  and  Naturalists.  This  is  the  most  compre- 
hensive of  American  scientific  societies,  having  an  enrollment  in  1910  of 
over  8,000  members,  in  n  sections,  and  an  affiliated  relationship  with  about 
30  societies  within  the  scientific  professions.  A  more  exclusive  organiza- 
tion is  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  incorporated  by  congress  in  1863. 
There  are  now  115  members  and  44  foreign  associates.  In  the  National 
Academy  of  Design  there  are  138  national  academians  and  124  associate 
national  academians.  The  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Letters  dates 
from  1904.  Its  first  members  were  selected  by  7  men,  chosen  by  the  National 
Institute  of  Arts  and  Letters  from  its  own  body,  with  authoriy  to  select 
the  other  members  of  the  Academy  until  the  number  should  reach  50.  The 
National  Institute  was  organized  in  1898  at  a  meeting  of  the  American 
Social  Science  Association,  the  qualification  for  membership  in  which  is 
'notable  achievement  in  art,  music  or  literature.'  The  number  is  limited 
to  500.  The  American  Social  Science  Association  was  organized  in  1865, 


378  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

its  field  being  the  investigation  and  discussion  of  all  subjects  pertaining  to 
the  progress  of  human  society.  It  has  a  membership  of  about  i,ooo  A 
similar  society,  founded  in  1889,  is  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science  which  has  about  4,000  members. 

Several  special  religious  societies  deserve  attention  besides 
those  organized  with  churches. 

The  churches  in  1910  had  an  aggregate  membership  in  the  United  States 
of  over  34,500,000.  Part  of  the  church  work  is  conducted  by  specially 
organized  missionary  societies.  There  is  no  separate  membership  in  most 
cases.  The  members  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union  for 
instance,  are  all  members  of  the  Baptist  Church.  Auxiliary  societies  of 
women  exist  in  which  money  payments  corresponding  to  dues  are  some- 
times expected.  The  point  of  view  in  these  religious  societies  is  different, 
however,  than  in  any  other  form  of  club,  or  than  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  where  a  regular  payment  is  made  in  turn  for  certain 
privileges.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  founded  in  England  in  1844.  The  Boston 
and  Montreal  Associations  were  founded  in  1851;  the  first  national  con- 
vention in  America  occurred  in  1854.  At  present  there  are  in  North 
America  over  2,000  associations  with  an  aggregate  membership  of  500,000. 
The  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  started  in  England  in  1855. 
In  this  country  the  organization  was  formed  in  1858  as  the  Ladies'  Chris- 
tian Union. 

The  patriotic  societies  in  existence  before  the  Revolution 
may  be  said  to  have  been  largely  political  in  character. 

The  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  was  the  first  of  that  group  now  prominent 
that  have  as  a  basis  of  membership  an  hereditary  qualification.  The  World 
Almanac  of  191 1  mentions  32  such  organizations  for  men,  1 1  for  women,  and 
4  that  have  a  mixed  membership.  The  chief  military  organizations  are  the 
Society  of  the  War  of  1812,  formed  in  1826,  the  Aztec  Club  of  1847,  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  1866,  which  in  1910  had  2 13,901  members,  the  Sons  of 
the  Revolution,  1875,  the  Sons  of  Veterans,  1879,  and  the  Societies  of  Spanish 
War  Veterans.  In  1 883  the  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  Auxiliary  to  the  G.  A.  R., 
was  formed  with  the  object  especially  to  aid  and  assist  the  G.  A.  R.,  and  to 
perpetuate  the  memory  of  its  heroic  dead.  It  had  in  June,  1910,  164,255 
members.  In  1890  was  started  the  group  of  societies  which  employ  this 
hereditary  qualification  as  a  means  of  obtaining  an  exclusive  membership 
for  social  purposes.  In  the  same  summer  were  formed  the  Colonial  Dames 
of  America,  and  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution,  the  latter 
being  the  more  influential  of  the  group,  having  in  1910  a  membership  of 
60,250.  The  characterizing  feature  of  these  clubs  is  not  their  purpose  but 
their  eligibility  test. 

Most  of  the  labor  unions  of  the  country  are  affiliated  into 
the  organization  known  as  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

In  1910  this  was  composed  of  122  national  and  international  unions,  with 
an  aggregate  membership  of  1,534,700.  In  the  railway  unions  not  affi- 
liated with  the  federation  were  282,136  men,  and  in  the  other  independent 
unions  138,688.  Besides  these  there  are  several  organizations  such  as  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  the  American  Labor  Union,  and  the  Western  Federation 
of  Miners,  from  whom  no  figures  could  be  obtained.  The  estimated  trade 
union  membership  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  for  1909  is  2,500,000 
(57,  P-  404)- 

At  the  time  of  every  political  campaign  local  political  clubs 
spring  up  everywhere  in  all  parties. 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  379 

In  the  two  leading  parties  there  are  strong  permanent  organizations  of  a 
central  character.  The  National  Republican  League  of  the  United  States 
was  organized  in  1887  by  delegates  from  about  350  local  clubs,  its  aim  being 
to  enlist  voters  for  the  party.  It  has  a  membership  of  1,500,000.  A 
similar  organization  in  the  Democratic  Party,  now  in  its  third  year,  has 
875,000  members. 

National  organizations  exist  in  many  of  the  professions. 

The  American  Medical  Association  was  incorporated  in  1897  and  has  a 
membership  of  35,500.  The  American  Bar  Association  was  organized  in 
1878  and  now  has  4,000  members.  From  these  it  is  but  a  step  to  the 
professional  organizations  of  business  men.  The  American  Iron  and  Steel 
Association  is  classed  by  the  Carnegie  Institution  as  one  of  the  learned 
societies.  It  was  founded  in  1855  to  take  all  proper  measures  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  trade,  and  its  membership  is  constituted  of  manufacturers 
of  iron  and  steel.  The  same  handbook  includes  the  American  Railway 
Master  Mechanics  Association,  1868,  founded  for  the  advancement  of 
knowledge  useful  for  this  trade.  The  National  Association  of  Manufac- 
turers, 1895,  is  but  the  most  general  of  500  employers  organizations  that 
might  be  named.  Corresponding  to  every  degree  of  organization  of  labor 
exist  organizations  of  capital.  So  on  down  the  list  we  might  go,  if  there  were 
paper  enough,  to  enumerate  the  clubs  of  governors,  bankers,  accountants, 
commercial  travellers,  clerks,  pickpockets,  thieves,  tramps  and  'black- 
handers.' 

Another  type  of  organization  is  represented  in  the  athletic 
associations. 

These  exist  locally  in  almost  every  city  in  every  branch  of  athletics. 
For  the  last  20  years  amateur  athletics  has  centered  in  the  American  Athletic 
Union,  which  now  represents  in  active  membership  over  400  local  clubs,  and 
as  allied  members  10  national  associations,  the  aggregate  membership 
amounting  to  about  2,000,000  competing  athletes.  It  was  organized  in 
1887  and  after  a  war  of  several  years  with  its  predecessor,  the  National 
Amateur  Athletic  Association  of  America,  which  was  founded  in  1879, 
the  latter  was  absorbed. 

A  society  in  a  class  by  itself  is  the  National  Grange  of  the  Patrons  of 
Husbandry,  1867.  It  admits  women  on  an  equality  with  men.  Its  purpose 
is  to  promote  all  that  is  best  in  the  mental,  social  and  spiritual  development, 
as  well  as  to  advance  the  material  interests  of  its  members.  Local  granges 
have  been  formed  among  the  farmers  of  every  section  of  the  country.  In 
numbers  it  reached  its  greatest  height  in  1875,  when  there  were  1,500,000; 
this  was  the  result  of  the  panic  of  1873.  At  this  period  the  society  got  into 
politics  with  disastrous  results.  At  present  it  confines  its  activities  to 
educational  and  social  wrok. 

In  the  above  treatment  the  aim  has  been  to  describe  the 
chief  facts  regarding  the  most  prominent  representatives  of 
all  types  of  the  club.  Most  of  these  have  been  national 
societies.  Connected  with  each  are  local  organizations, 
formed  on  a  similar  plan.  In  thousands  of  cases,  however, 
there  are  local  clubs  entirely  independent,  and  each  varying 
from  the  others.  Foremost  among  these  is  the  'social  club' 
formed  in  every  town.  Where  there  is  wealth  enough  a  club 
house  is  built.  The  World  Almanac  gives  the  names  of  76 
such  clubs  in  New  York  City,  which  have  a  membership  of 


380  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

75,000.  The  chief  purpose  in  the  social  club  is  a  good  time 
and  the  agencies  employed  are  almost  as  varied  as  human 
interests.  In  the  way  of  summary  of  the  adult  clubs  nothing 
can  be  said  but  that  for  every  conceivable  object  a  group  of 
people  may  have  in  common  the  American  tendency  at  present 
is  to  organize  a  club. 

SECTION  II.    INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  DATA 

Chap.  I.     The  Dynamic  Mental  Forces  which  Produce 
the  Club 

Thus  far  this  thesis  has  confined  itself  to  a  presentation  of 
the  facts  regarding  the  club,  i.  e.,  to  the  structural  aspect  of 
social  psychology.  This  section  of  the  paper  attempts  an 
interpretation  of  these  ;x,data,  which  process  constitutes  the 
functional  aspect  of  social  psychology.  In  the  genetic 
approach  to  this  question  it  is  possible  to  see  the  development 
of  the  different  psychical  processes  involved.  The  task  of 
this  chapter  is  to  describe  the  dynamic  mental  processes 
which  produce  the  club. 

It  will  be  helpful  first  to  draw  a  distinction  between  the 
activity  of  the  group  and  the  form  of  organization  of  the 
group.  The  activity  has  its  causal  plexus  more  firmly  estab- 
lished and  developed  than  does  the  form  of  organization. 
The  needs  of  the  human  race  do  not  change  with  every  wind 
of  fad,  but  are  fundamentally  the  same  in  all  groups  throughout 
ages.  In  studying  the  activities  of  boys'  and  girls,'  men's  and 
women's  clubs  we  find  at  base  the  innervating  cause  that  has 
inspired  the  group  life  of  ages.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fra- 
ternal beneficiary  organization,  the  woman's  club  and  the  socie- 
ties of  boys  and  girls  have  a  form  quite  modern.  Moreover 
the  universality,  in  America  at  least,  of  membership  in  clubs 
of  one  kind  or  another,  is  one  of  the  facts  sociologists  have 
found  remarkable. 

There  are  but  three  kinds  of  self-activity :  play,  work,  and 
drudgery.  (I  am  following  here  Dean  Thomas  M.  Balliet, 
as  he  treats  this  subject  in  his  classroom  lectures.)  Some 
things  are  interesting  in  the  doing  without  reference  to  what 
results  from  that  activity;  this  is  play.  Work  differs  from 
play  in  that  it  has  an  end  that  is  desirable.  The  activity 
itself  may  be  interesting  or  uninteresting;  the  distinguishing 
feature  about  work  being  that  it  is  performed  for  the  sake 
of  an  end.  Drudgery  is  unpleasant  activity  which  accom- 
plishes nothing;  the  doing  and  the  result  are  both  painful  and 
useless.  In  studying  the  activities  of  groups  we  have  to 
consider  only  the  first  two.  A  society  based  on  drudgery 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  381 

cannot  endure.  I  would  go  beyond  Dr.  Balliet  here  and 
classify  play  on  the  instinctive  level  of  activity,  and  place 
work  on  the  reflective  level.  The  most  fundamental  instinct 
any  organism  has  is  activity,  just  pure  movement  for  its  own 
sake.  Our  definition  of  play,  therefore,  makes  it  fundamen- 
tally instinctive.  The  new  element  added  to  activity  which 
makes  the  compound  work  is  forethought,  the  idea  of  end, 
deliberation. 

This  classification  of  self-activity  is  directly  applicable  to  the 
study  of  group  life.  Up  to  the  age  of  fourteen,  on  the  average 
the  club  organization  was  found  to  be  purely  incidental  to  the 
play  life  of  a  group  already  formed.  After  that  age  it  was 
clearly  evident  that  ulterior  purposes  were  motive  powers  for 
bringing  together  a  group.  The  transition  is  not  abrupt.  The 
first  appearance  of  reflection  in  group  life  is  made  in  groups 
originally  ruled  by  instinct.  What  can  be  said  is  that  boys 
and  girls  do  not  deliberately  form  groups  for  an  ulterior 
purpose  until  about  the  age  of  fourteen.  The  appearance 
of  the  reflective  process  in  group  life  by  no  means  banishes 
the  instinctive.  In  fact  in  all  life  the  reflective  is  a  secondary 
motive.  Especially  is  this  true  of  club  life,  a  type  of  life 
which  is  in  general  only  possible  when  the  day's  work  is  over. 
It  is  in  the  club  that  adults  get  themselves  back  into  the  play 
attitude  of  childhood. 

The  motivation  for  the  activity  of  group  life  is  then  either 
instinctive  or  reflective  or  both.  A  consideration  of  the  con- 
tent of  the  activity  introduces  another  functional  process, 
namely  contagion.  The  content  of  play  is  in  part  recapitula- 
tion, i.  e.,  so  far  as  it  is  instinctive.  A  clearer  statement  of  the 
function  of  recapitulation,  however,  would  be  to  say  that,  in 
so  far  as  an  individual  resembles  his  ancestors,  as  the  result  of 
an  instinctive  Anlage,  he  will  act  as  they  do,  and  that  in  general 
the  individual  tends  to  pass  through  the  stages  of  develop- 
ment that  the  race  has  traversed.  Because  of  the  fact  that  a 
great  part  of  the  literature  dealing  with  the  club  misinterprets 
recapitulation  it  seems  necessary  to  interpolate  a  statement 
of  our  position.  The  chief  error  has  been  due  to  the  fact  that 
primitive  life  has  been  misinterpreted.  If  modern  anthropolo- 
gists be  correct  primitive  man  was  not  so  savage  and  gorilla- 
like  as,  a  la  Jack  London,  we  have  been  wont  to  conceive. 
The  savage  is  pretty  close  to  the  intellectual  leader  of  our 
civilization,  if  we  but  take  the  latter  on  his  unguarded  vacation 
moments.  The  Englishman  enjoys  hunting  and  fishing  as 
much  as  does  the  savage.  The  American  college  professor 
approximates  the  life  of  the  Indian  just  as  closely  as  he  is  able, 
when  he  gets  a  chance.  The  main  difference  is  in  the  degree 
of  complication  and  organization  of  his  social  life.  The 


2 82  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

primitive  man  lived  under  an  economic  regime  where  there 
was  no  factory  system  nor  complicated  social  structure,  but 
his  was  the  first  hand  contact  with  nature.  His  struggles, 
which  were  the  same  as  the  civilized  man  faces,  were  met  with 
different  tools  and  in  a  different  degree  of  organization.  The 
two  men,  the  primitive  and  the  present  day  man  were  funda- 
mentally the  same.  To  use  Prof.  A.  F.  Chamberlain's  phrase, 
both  are  'generically  human.'  The  boy  of  to-day  is  an  Indian 
in  the  sense  that  he  is  an  uncivilized  man;  he  hasn't  become 
a  cog  in  the  great  economic  or  moral  system.  Psychologically 
the  chief  fact  is  that  the  boy's  moral  sense  has  not  reached 
the  point  of  development  where  he  can  understand  his  relation- 
ship to  the  larger  social  group.  We  say  he  is  a  'little  savage.' 
We  mean  that  he  is  in  that  period  of  growth  when,  the  power 
of  reflection  appearing,  all  previous  standards  of  conduct 
which  before  have  been  accepted  unreflectively,  now  come  to 
the  bar  of  individual  judgment,  and  the  first  reaction  is  a 
revolt,  an  insurrection  against  the  moral  order.  The  truth 
in  recapitualtion,  if  these  facts  be  correct,  is  then  that  the 
individual  does  recapitulate  the  race  history,  but  our  history 
has  been  misinterpreted. 

The  viewpoint  of  recapitulation  provides  an  explanation  of 
many  of  the  more  individualistic  activities.  In  boys  the  life 
of  woods  and  field  and  stream  with  its  hunting,  swimming, 
fishing,  building  of  huts,  tents  and  dug-outs,  the  exploring  of 
caves,  trapping,  skating,  coasting,  making  boats,  and  in 
girls,  keeping  house,  making  clothes  for  and  caring  for  dolls, 
making  mud  pies  and  similar  activities  may  be  considered  as 
motivated  from  the  great  instinctive  or  recapitulatory  power 
house. 

The  organized  games  such  as  baseball,  football,  hockey, 
cricket,  basketball,  as  well  as  tag,  duck  on  the  rock,  prisoner's 
base  and  the  scores  of  similar  games,  and  in  girls'  activities 
croquet,  keeping  store,  playing  church,  jump  rope,  clap-in  and 
clap-out,  these,  and  the  other  group  games  of  similar  nature 
involve  in  the  consideration  of  their  content  the  factor  of 
contagion,  using  that  term  to  include  both  imitation  and  sug- 
gestion. By  far  the  greatest  part  of  the  content  of  the 
activities  of  pre-adolescent  clubs  is  the  result  of  imitation  of  the 
activity  of  others,  or  is  the  effect  of  suggestion  by  others. 
A  curious  misinterpretation  is  recorded  above  in  -Sheldon's 
treatment  of  clubs.  The  period  before  ten  he  calls  that  of 
imitation,  that  from  ten  to  fourteen  he  calls  the  period  of 
invention  and  the  following  of  instinct.  As  illustrating  imita- 
tion he  describes  the  experience  of  a  group  of  school  children. 
The  teacher  read  an  Indian  story;  all  the  next  winter  the 
children  played  Indian.  This  correctly  enough  he  interpreted 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  383 

as  imitation.  A  group  of  thirteen  year  old  boys,  however, 
formed  a  Jesse  James  gang  (Sheldon  makes  the  parenthetical 
statement  that  tales  of  this  notorious  leader  were  rampant 
at  the  time).  This  he  interprets  as  showing  reversion,  the 
following  of  instinct.  Certainly  the  latter  case  is  as  truly 
imitative  as  the  former;  both  are  in  fact  good  examples  of 
imitation.  Such  is  the  correct  interpretation  of  all  Indian 
games.  Recapitulation  will  explain  the  love  of  outdoor  life, 
but  it  will  not  explain  the  wearing  of  feathers,  the  shaping  of 
tomahawks  or  of  bows  and  arrows.  Recapitulation  will 
explain  such  predatory  activities  as  stealing  apples  and  water- 
melons, but  it  cannot  be  used  to  explain  the  organization  of 
bands  of  desperadoes  of  robbers,  pirates  and  military  compa- 
nies. 

As  illustrating  the  power  of  contagion  in  determining  the 
content  of  girls'  club  activities  the  following  may  be  cited: 

"When  about  twelve  years  old  I  formed  an  organization  with  about  eight 
other  girls  of  my  own  age.  We  called  our  society  the  Chrysanthemum 
Society,  and  our  object  was  to  help  if  we  could  the  little  heathen  Chinese 
children  which  we  had  heard  and  read  so  much  about.  This  was  a  purely 
voluntary  organization,  no  one  knowing  anything  about  it  at  first  with 
the  exception  of  the  members.  We  had,  I  remember,  a  meeting  once  a 
week  for  about  two  weeks.  In  these  meetings,  which  lasted  about  fifteen 
minutes,  we  would  have  some  verses  read  from  the  Bible.  I  remember  that 
I  was  always  anxious  to  be  the  one  to  do  the  reading  from  the  Bible.  After 
this  each  one  would  read  some  short  article  concerning  the  children  in 
China;  then  we  would  discuss  what  we  intended  to  do  to  help  them.  We 
finally  decided  to  hold  a  fair.  This  we  did  and  sold  lemonade  and  cake. 
We  invited  all  the  boys  and  girls  that  we  knew  in  the  neighborhood.  They 
knew  nothing  about  our  society  until  the  day  of  the  fair.  What  little 
money  we  managed  to  get  from  the  fair  we  gave  to  our  Sunday  School 
teacher,  who  was  greatly  surprised  whea  she  heard  what  we  had  done.  I 
think  that  our  organization  did  not  last  over  two  weeks.  We  finally  grew 
tired  of  it  and  abandoned  it." 

From  among  a  large  number  of  others  this  illustration  may 
also  be  given  in  full : 

"  The  first  club  to  which  I  belonged  and  which  was  formed  by  my  play- 
mates was  the  'Sewing  Club.'  We  five  little  girls,  about  eleven  and  twelve 
years  old,  were  greatly  absorbed  in  sewing — either  embroidery  of  small 
pieces  for  ourselves  or  the  tiniest  of  doll's  clothes.  There  were  no  other 
girls  admitted  to  this  club,  because  the  other  girls  whom  we  knew  were  not 
interested  in  sewing  as  we  were.  Then,  too,  the  club  changed  its  real 
purpose  and  it  became  rather  a  secret  society.  The  club  was  started  about 
the  beginning  of  the  summer  vacation  and  toward  the  end  we  decided  we 
had  enough  doll's  dresses.  Just  at  the  time  there  had  been  many  interest- 
ing reports  concerning  the  society  people  of  New  York  .  We  talked  about 
these  events  at  our  club  meetings  and  finally  decided  we  would  pretend  we 
were  these  wealthy  people.  Each  chose  her  favorite  name  for  herself  and 
her  husband  and  thereafter  we  called  our  club  the  'Fourhundred  Club.' 
The  chief  object  of  this  club  seemed  to  be  to  imagine  ourselves  in  all  the 
positions  of  our  respective  roles — attending  grand  balls,  theatre-parties 
dinners  and  the  like,  with  the  gowns  and  everything  appropriate  which  we 


'384  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

could  imagine.  Being  thoughtful  children  as  well  as  very  imaginative  we 
did  not  forget  the  poor  people  of  whom  we  heard  much  from  the  conversation 
of  our  elders.  In  our  imagination  we  gave  bountifully  to  charity  and  to  all 
who  came  in  our  path.  To  be  sure,  in  our  real  life,  we  knew  we  never  could 
do  so  much  as  this,  but  to  me  at  least,  it  was  a  pleasure  beyond  that  of  the 
beautiful  gowns,  to  think  of  some  one  who  might  be  able  to  do  it.  Our 
only  passwords  were  our  assumed  names.  This  club  continued  for  about 
two  years  and  even  after  two  of  us  moved  away  from  the  town  we  continued 
it  in  our  letters." 

As  Sheldon  made  the  mistake  of  calling  the  period  from  ten 
to  fourteen  predominantly  that  for  the  following  of  instinct 
as  a  determinant  of  the  play  content,  so  also  he  was  incorrect 
in  calling  this  the  period  of  invention.  Invention  or  the  con- 
tribution of  original  interpretations  to  situations  and  phe- 
nomena are  not  the  product  of  minds  that  do  not  deliberate, 
and  deliberation  in  the  preadolescent  bespeaks  the  precocious 
child.  Deliberation  as  a  process  in  the  formation  of  the  con- 
tent of  play  seldom  occurs  before  thirteen  or  fourteen.  When  it 
does  appear  it  completes  the  trio,  instinct,  contagion  and 
deliberation,  which  constitute  the  determinants  of  the  content 
of  the  activity  of  the  group. 

Our  treatment  of  the  development  of  the  form  of  the  organi- 
zation of  the  group  is  quite  closely  related  to  Baldwin's  study 
of  ' '  The  Basis  of  Social  Solidarity ' '  (9  and  8) .  He  differentiates 
three  modes  of  collective  life :  ( i )  the  instinctive  or  gregarious ; 
(2)  the  spontaneous  or  plastic;  (3)  the  reflective  or  social 
proper.  The  first  is  the  gift  of  physical  hereditary.  The 
second  is  the  result  of  social  transmission,  an  emotional 
response  to  a  social  suggestion,  its  laws  being  imitation,  sug- 
gestion, contagion,  spontaneous  union  in  common  experience 
and  action.  The  third  is  the  mode  of  conscious  intention,  of 
intelligent  judgment,  the  force  which  leads  people  to  rebel 
against  the  authority  of  society  and  the  rule  of  plastic  sugges- 
tion. The  first  mode  of  collective  life  is  illustrated  in  the  family 
life  of  animals.  The  crowd  following  the  leader  is  the  typical 
example  of  the  second  sort;  the  committee,  the  legisla- 
ture, the  administrative  bureau  represent  the  third  type  of 
organization. 

Baldwin  does  not  apply  this  schema  to  the  interpretation  of 
the  club,  but  gives  us  a  point  of  departure.  If  we  may  broaden 
the  instinctive  element,  gregariousness,  to  include  the  additional 
factors  involved  in  sociability,  the  resultant  complex  will 
satisfy  our  conception  of  the  forces  which  produce  the  club. 
Sociability  is  one  of  the  sentiments,  using  the  word  sentiment 
as  Titchener  defines  it:  "The  sentiment  represents  the  last 
stage  of  mental  development  on  the  affective  side,  as  thought 
represents  the  highest  level  of  development  on  the  side  of 
sensation  and  image"  (76,  p.  499).  Sociability  is  gregarious- 
ness  evolved  to  the  level  of  a  sentiment. 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  385 

The  affective  element  in  gregariousness  is  made  evident  by  a 
feeling  of  uneasiness  in  isolation  from,  and  a  feeling  of  satis- 
faction in  the  physical  presence  of  one's  kind.  As  Kropotkin 
has  shown  by  a  wealth  of  illustration  (47)  gregariousness  is  a 
common  instinct  of  higher  animals.  He  says:  "The  necessity 
of  communicating  impressions,  of  playing,  of  chattering,  or  of 
simply  feeling  the  proximity  of  one's  kindred  living  beings 
pervades  nature,  and  is  as  much  as  any  other  physiological 
function,  a  distinctive  feature  ofjlife  and  impressionability" 
(47,  p.  55).  A  classic  description  of  gregariousness  is  given 
in  the  "Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty"  (28,  p.  68-81)  where 
Galton  relates  his  experiences  with  the  South  African  oxen. 
Two  processes,  at  least,  contribute  to  the  development  of 
gregariousness,  association  for  protection  against  opposing 
enemies  and  elements,  and  association  in  play,  the  activity 
of  the  leisure  hours,  perhaps,  when  the  demands  of  eating  and 
fighting  have  slackened.  The  resultant  legacy  left  to  man 
from  this  gregarious  association  of  animals  is  an  instinctive 
pull  toward  the  company  of  other  men.  In  its  lowest  form 
it  expresses  itself  as  the  joy  of  being  in  a  crowd.  The  profes- 
sional entertainer  recognizes  this  and  throws  out  inducements 
to  draw  the  crowd,  because  the  crowd  is  in  itself  an  asset,  even 
when  it  spends  no  money.  One  of  the  greatest  attractions  of 
Coney  Island  is  the  fact  that  there  one  will  be  in  a  crowd. 
Gregariousness  explains  why  on  election  night  or  New  Year's 
Eve  in  the  great  city  multitudes  of  well  educated  people 
fmd  themselves  irresistibly  drawn  to  the  streets  where  the 
crowd  is  thickest.  There  is  a  feeling  of  exaltation  and  exhil- 
eration  that  sweeps  over  one  when  in  a  crowd  that  has  a 
charm  all  its  own,  because  it  satisfies  a  primal  need.  Mc- 
Dougall  attributes  the  growth  of  cities  far  beyond  the  point 
of  optimum  economic  efficiency  to  this  instinct  (49,  p.  296- 
301).  Ross  writes:  "These  instincts  (gregarious)  appear  as 
craving  for  the  presence  of  one's  kind,  distress  at  being  left 
alone,  nostalgia  after  separation  from  mates,  and  a  capacity 
for  social  pleasure  indicated  by  mirth,  laughter  and  festal 
impulses.  They  lead  to  social  amusement,  play,  games, 
dancing,  feasting  and  intercourse.  These  in  turn  foster 
friendly  interest,  spontaneous  helpfulness  and  a  sense  of 
solidarity"  (65,  p.  14).  As  is  suggested  in  this  statement 
the  concept  of  the  consciousness  of  kind,  in  Giddings's  termi- 
nology (29,  p.  17)  is  envolved.  Gregariousness,  however,  adds 
the  desire  to  be  with  those  of  one's  kind. 

The  baby  shows  by  a  smile  at  the  age  of  two  months,  accord- 
ing to  Darwin  (21,  p.  289),  Preyer  (60)  and  Perez  (59,  p.  29) 
that  it  enjoys  the  presence  of  others.  This  reveals  gregarious- 
ness. O'Shea  says:  "When  one  sees  an  infant  reciprocating 


3  86  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

the  loving  expressions  of  its  mother,  and  later  pleading  with 
her  to  remain  near  by  merely  that  he  may  enjoy  her  presence, 
it  seems  beyond  question  that  he  has  brought  with  him  the 
rudiment  of  sociable  feeling  which  causes  him  to  ascribe  a 
social  value  to  persons  and  to  desire  to  have  friendly  intercourse 
with  them"  (58,  p.  5).  Referring  to  the  work  of  Sully  (78, 
p.  242)  and  of  Kirkpatrick  (46,  p.  119)  O'Shea  continues: 
"It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  there  is  a  kind  of  pleasure  in 
personal  intercourse  which  the  child  experiences  before  he  has 
completed  even  six  months  among  us"  (58,  p.  5)*.  Cooky's 
statement  on  this  point  is  as  follows :  "By  the  time  the  child 
is  a  year  old  the  social  feeling  that  at  first  is  indistinguishable 
from  senscious  pleasure  has  been  much  specialized  upon  persons, 
and  from  that  time  onward  to  call  it  forth  by  reciprocation  is  the 
chief  aim  of  his  life  "  ( 1 8,  p .  49) .  Kirkpatrick  says :  "  As  early 
as  the  second  year  they  (children)  manifest  great  pleasure 
in  the  company  of  other  children  near  their  own  age  "~  (46, 
p.  119).  McDougall  says  that  "agoraphobia  seems  to  result 
from  the  morbidly  intense  working  of  this  instinct"  (49,  p.  85). 

As  the  child  grows,  gregariousness  becomes  sublimated  in 
various  sentiments,  one  of  the  most  important  of  which  is 
'active  sympathy,'  to  use  McDougall's  terminology.  This 
constitutes  the  second  level  in  the  development  of  sociability. 
Active  sympathy  is  a  different  process  from  the  crude,  sym- 
pathetic reaction.  "It  involves  a  reciprocal  relation  between 
at  least  two  persons;  either  party  to  the  relation  not  only  is 
apt  to  experience  the  emotions;  he  actively  seeks  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  other,  and,  when  he  has  communicated  the 
emotion,  he  attains  a  peculiar  satisfaction  which  greatly 
enhances  his  pleasure  and  his  joy,  or  in  the  case  of  painful 
emotions,  diminishes  his  pain"  (49,  p.  168).  Crude  sympathy 
is  that  which  Darwin  saw  in  the  expression  of  his  child  "at 
six  months  and  eleven  days  by  his  melancholy  face,  with  the 
corners  of  his  mouth  well  depressed,  when  his  nurse  pretended 
to  cry"  (21,  p.  .294).  When  this  crude  sympathy  is  supple- 
mented by  gregariousness  the  product  is  the  sentiment  of 
active  sympathy.  We  follow  McDougall  here:  "Since  man 
certainly  inherits  this  (the  gregarious)  instinct,  we  may  see 
in  this  the  principle  that  we  need  for  the  explanation  of  the 
development  of  active  sympathy  from  the  crude  sympathetic 
induction"  (49,  p.  170). 

Sympathy  deals,  however,  only  with  the  affective  phase  of 
experience.  Sociability,  on  the  other  hand,  presupposes 
ideational  as  well  as  emotional  experience.  Sympathy  can 
scarcely  be  used  to  denote  both  types  of  process,  since  sym- 
pathy means  suffering  with,  Mitgefuhl.  The  broader  meaning 
added  by  the  process  of  intercommunication  of  thoughts  is 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  387 

expressed  by  the  term  rapport,  as  this  presupposes  both  the 
emotional  and  ideational  intercommunication.  Sociability, 
then,  is  the  sentiment  which  finds  its  manifestation  in  satisfac- 
tion when  two  persons  are  en  rapport,  and  in  loneliness  when 
this  need  for  intercommunication  of  thought  and  emotion  is 
unsatisfied. 

As  distinguished  from  gregariousness,  sociability  requires 
intercommunication  of  experience  between  individuals,  reci- 
procity of  thought  and  emotion,  if  not  absolute  free  trade. 
One  of  the  walls  in  the  structure  of  sociability  is  the  desire  to 
be  appreciated.  This  involves  at  least  an  awareness  of 
personality,  and  it  increases  in  direct  ratio  as  the  sense  of  self 
becomes  more  clearly  defined.  The  longing  to  be  appreciated 
is  one  of  the  most  universal  human  cravings  and  its  satisfaction 
is  one  of  the  chief  functions  of  sociability.  The  complement- 
ary wall  of  this  structure  is  the  possession  of  the  power  to 
appreciate  others.  There  can  be  no  sociability  without 
subordination  of  self  to  an  extent  necessary  to  allow  of  a  recog- 
nition of  other  selves.  Prof.  James  said:  "We  are  not  only 
gregarious  animals,  liking  to  be  in  sight  of  our  fellows,  but  we 
have  an  innate  propensity  to  get  ourselves  noticed,  and 
noticed  favorably  by  our  kind.  No  more  fiendish  punishment 
could  be  devised,  were  such  a  thing  physically  possible,  than 
that  one  should  be  turned  loose  in  society  and  remain  absolutely 
unnoticed  by  all  the  members  thereof.  If  no  one  turned  round 
when  we  entered,  answered  when  we  spoke  or  minded  what  we 
did,  but  if  every  person  we  met  'cut  us  dead,'  and  acted  as  if 
we  were  non-existing  things,  a  kind  of  rage  and  impotent 
despair  would  swell  up  in  us,  from  which  the  crudest  bodily 
tortures  would  be  a  relief;  for  these  would  make  us  feel  that, 
however  bad  might  be  our  plight,  we  had  not  sunk  to  such  a 
depth  as  to  be  unworthy  the  attention  of  all"  (43,  p.  293-294). 
The  ability  to  subordinate  self  involves  the  development  of  the 
sense  of  the  alter.  Baldwin  (7)  and  James  (43,  p.  291-401) 
have  shown  that  the  sense  of  the  alter  is  acquired  with  the 
sense  of  the  self.  This  is  no  easy  acquisition,  but  comes  only 
with  years  of  knocking  up  against  other  people.  The  studies 
of  group  life  have  shown  that  as  soon  as  the  child  is  able  to 
leave  his  mother's  apron  strings,  at  about  five  or  seven,  he 
seeks  the  companionship  of  others  of  his  kind.  Thus  is  gre- 
gariousness manifested.  O'Shea  says:  "The  boy  at  first 
wants  to  be  it.  Gradual  discipline  in  group  relations  develops 
the  group  consciousness"  (58,  p.  304).  The  reason  why 
early  activity  is  unorganized,  uncontinuous,  inco-ordinate,  is 
because  the  children  have  not  yet  learned  to  get  out  of  them- 
selves and  see  the  game  as  others  see  it.  A  game  of  baseball 
among  pubescents  is  a  noisy,  riotous,  scrappy  affair  and  it 


3  88  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

almost  invariably  terminates  in  a  fight.  The  'fighting  instinct' 
here  finds  its  raison  d'etre  in  modern  society  in  serving  the 
function  of  subordinating  innocent,  unsophisticated  self-feeling 
to  the  will  of  the  group.  The  gregarious  impulse  compels 
them  to  get  together  so  again  and  again  they  try  it,  and 
gradually  as  the  result  of  hard  knocks,  each  learns  to  appreciate 
the  rights  of  the  others.  In  this  way  is  laid  the  foundation  of 
sociability,  the  power  to  appreciate  the  other  fellow's  point 
of  view.  This  process  usually  takes  until  the  age  of  twelve,  as 
the  studies  of  group  activity  have  shown. 

The  negative  evidence  of  sociability  is  lonesomeness,  nostal- 
gia. This  feeling  is  manifest  in  all  types  of  mental  culture. 
It  appears  in  its  highest  form  among  scientists,  philosophers, 
artists,  or  other  pioneers  on  the  frontier  of  thought,  when  sep- 
arated from  minds  sufficiently  developed  to  appreciate  their 
interests.  Hauptmann  in  "Einsame  Menschen"  (38)  gives 
the  classical  picture  of  this  type  of  loneliness.  Literature 
furnishes  many  examples;  actual  life  many  more.  In  Chap. 
XVI  of  the  Epilogue  of  "War  and  Peace,"  Tolstoi  presents  a 
fine  illustration  of  this  highest  type  of  sociability:  "Natasha 
and  her  husband  left  alone,  also  talked  as  only  wife  and 
husband  can  talk,  namely  with  extraordinary  clearness  and  swift- 
ness, recognizing  and  communicating  each  other's  thoughts, 
by  a  method  contrary  to  all  logic,  without  the  aid  of  reasonings, 
syllogisms,  and  deductions,  but  with  absolute  freedom.  .  . 
As  in  a  vision  everything  is  illusory,  absurd,  and  incoherent, 
except  the  feeling  which  is  the  guide  of  the  vision,  so  in  this 
intercourse,  so  contrary  to  all  the  laws  of  logic,  the  phrases 
uttered  were  not  logical  and  clear,  while  the  feeling  that 
guided  them  was"  (82).  The  demand  of  sociability  in  the 
cultivated  man  is  a  burning  desire  to  talk  to  some  one  about 
the  problems  that  occupy  the  thoughts.  To  be  sociable  does 
not  mean  that  individuals  must  think  alike,  or  hold  the  same 
opinion,  but  that  they  must  understand  and  appreciate  each 
other's  thoughts;  they  must  be  congenial  in  their  thinking. 
This  involves  us  in  the  subject  of  congeniality  of  interests,  which 
is  discussed  in  the  following  chapter. 

For  gregariousness,  then,  in  Baldwin's  schema  we  substitute 
sociability,  a  more  highly  developed  sentiment,  as  the  primary 
psychological  factor  of  those  which  produce  club  organization. 
It  is  this  which  brings  children  together  originally,  and  after 
clubs  are  formed  it  is  sociability  which  of  all  forces  is  the  most 
powerful  in  holding  them  together.  By  far  the  most  promi- 
nent reason  given  by  children  for  the  existence  of  clubs  is  that 
they  enjoy  being  together.  Nor  does  the  power  of  sociability 
diminish  with  age,  for  with  rising  mental  grasp  rises  also  the 
type  of  sociability.  In  the  boys'  club  sociability  is  satisfied 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  389 

in  the  athletic  contest,  the  interplay  of  physical  experience; 
in  adolescent  clubs  sociability  utilizes  to  a  greater  extent  the 
interplay  of  emotional  experience  and  to  a  lesser  degree  of 
ideational  experience.  With  adult  clubs  sociability  is  more 
dominantly  satisfied  with  the  interplay  of  ideas.  In  one  level 
of  society  those  ideas  may  constitute  nothing  but  gossip,  or 
the  news  of  the  more  concrete,  nearer  interests.  In  the  scien- 
tific or  professional  society  this  sentiment  is  satisfied  by  the 
food  hardest  to  digest,  but  most  tempting  to  the  educated 
mind.  Groos  has  recognized  this  where  he  says,  in ' '  The  Play 
of  Man"  (31,  p.  337):  ''Finally,  I  remark  that  a  playful 
motive  is  often  discerned  in  the  formation  of  the  multifarious 
clubs  for  the  advancement  of  some  worthy  object  in  this  age  of 
abounding  culture.  We  all  know  persons  for  whom  the  abso- 
lute interest  in  the  ostensible  purpose  of  the  club  would  be  out 
of  the  question  but  for  the  good  company.  The  mere  fact  of 
being  one  of  a  group  is  satisfaction  enough  to  the  gregarious 
instinct  and  the  playfulness  of  this  condition  can  scarcely  be 
questioned."  Hugh  Black  points  out  the  fact  that,  "the  very 
existence  of  the  church  as  a  body  of  believers  is  due  to  this 
necessity  of  our  nature,  which  demands  opportunity  for  the 
interchange  of  Christian  sentiment"  (10,  p.  72).  In  all 
societies,  this  interaction  of  individuals  upon  other  individuals 
as  they  impart  their  experience  and  receive  in  turn  the  experi- 
ence of  others,  produces  a  satisfaction  which  is  the  chief  cement 
binding  clubs  together. 

The  second  factor  of  those  which  determine  the  establish- 
ment of  the  club  is  contagion.  Baldwin  speaks  of  this  as  a 
group  of  factors  which  he  calls  spontaneous  or  plastic,  as  we 
pointed  out  above.  Tarde  (80)  attempted  to  explain  all  social 
organization  by  this  factor  alone,  which,  while  failing  to  recog- 
nize the  other  factors,  has  forced  everyone  to  appreciate  the 
immense  r61e  played  by  imitation.  If  Tarde  had  been 
treating  preadolsecent  clubs  only,  instead  of  the  whole  social 
organism,  we  might  follow  his  position  more  closely.  But 
imitation  involves  in  its  very  definition  something  to  imitate. 
The  original  model  was  formed  to  some  degree  through  delib- 
eration. So  with  clubs.  Adult  clubs  form  the  model  copied 
by  children. 

The  studies  show  that  with  boys  and  girls  under  thirteen 
or  fourteen  the  clubs  are  merely  incidental  to  the  other  group 
activity.  The  club  is  just  another  form  of  play,  i.  e.,  is  a  form 
of  activity  carried  on  without  an  ulterior  motive.  A  few 
examples  illustrate  the  general  rule  that  the  form  of  organiza- 
tion as  well  as  the  content  of  the  activity  of  preadolescent 
clubs  is  the  result  of  contagion. 


390  A   STUDY  IN   SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

"When  I  was  about  twelve  years  old,  I  became  acquainted  with  a  girl  two 
years  older  than  myself,  who,  as  she  was  in  high  school,  seemed  a  very 
great  and  marvelous  person  to  me.  As  she  lived  near  me,  we  naturally 
became  friends,  and  although  she  treated  me  in  a  sort  of  supercilious  manner 
such  as  girls  of  that  age  are  apt  to  use  toward  younger  ones,  I  admired  her 
with  all  my  heart,  and  looked  upon  all  her  words  and  actions  as  an  example. 
One  day  I  overheard  her  talking  to  a  friend  about  some  secret  society  to 
which  she  belonged,  and  of  course  I  coula  v*ot  rest  until  I  found  out  all  the 
particulars  and  had  made  plans  for  the  forming  of  a  secret  society  of  my  own. 
I  told  three  other  girls  about  it  and  they  were  all  eager  to  be  in  it  also.  Our 
place  of  meeting  was  to  be  the  darkest  corner  of  our  attic  and  the  aim  was 
to  write  a  book  of  joint  authorship  that  when  published  was  to  be  the 
marvel  of  the  age.  (It  was  the  latter,  though  I'm  sorry  to  say  it  was  never 
published.)  The  meetings  were  lighted  by  candle-light,  and  the  password 
was:  'I  have  told  no  one.'  The  entire  society  consisted  of  six  girls  and  a 
rag-doll,  which  was  the  mysterious  seventh  person;  and  each  member 
brought  one  cent  to  each  meeting,  which  occurred  each  Saturday  afternoon. 
The  business  of  the  meeting  was  soon  dispensed  with,  and  then  each  week  a 
member  would  write  a  new  chapter  to  the  book  and  read  it,  as  her  part  in 
the  programme.  After  the  reading  of  the  chapter  refreshments  were  served 
which  were  six  lollypops  or  peppermint  sticks,  bought  with  the  dues  of  the 
week  previous.  This  organization  lasted  for  nearly  a  year,  and  then  would 
not  have  become  dissolved  had  not  illness  (in  the  form  of  measles)  over- 
taken four  of  the  principal  members.  The  book  certainly  was  on  its  way  to 
be  a  masterpiece,  but  fate  interfered,  and  the  short,  sweet  life  of  the  'Society 
of  the  Daughters  of  Literature'  ended." 

This  account  shows  more  individuality  than  most  and,  in 
that  respect,  shows  less  the  force  of  contagion,  yet  this  club 
was  the  result  of  suggestion. 

As  contagion  almost  entirely  explains  the  form  of  organiza- 
tion of  the  club  in  the  years  of  preadolescence,  it  is  after  that 
age  and  throughout  adult  life  a  very  powerful  factor.  Delib- 
erate organization  always  sets  the  type ;  the  thousands  of  copies 
are  run  off  from  an  electroplate.  High  school  fraternities 
mimic  the  college  organizations.  The  later  college  societies 
copy  those  first  formed.  The  secret  fraternal  organizations 
which  have  a  membership  amounting  in  numbers  to  one  eighth 
of  the  entire  population  of  the  country  are  not  fifty  years  old. 
They  are  imitations  in  one  form  or  another  of  the  three  earliest, 
which  have  had  a  history  of  many  generations.  New  scien- 
tific societies  are  modeled  entirely  on  the  constitutions  of 
older  ones.  The  fact  of  contagion  in  determining  the  organiza- 
tion is  so  evident  as  to  need  no  further  elaboration. 

The  third  great  factor  in  this  process  of  club  formation  is 
deliberation.  In  an  earlier  paragraph  reflective  action  was 
made  synonymous  with  activity  carried  on  for  the  sake  of  an 
end.  Clubs,  the  organization  of  which  are  the  result  of  delib- 
eration from  that  fact  imply  that  they  have  a  purpose  in  mind. 
Another  implication  of  deliberately  formed  clubs,  or  voluntary 
associations,  as  they  may  now  be  called,  is  that  their  members 
realize  the  importance  of  united  action;  recognize  strength  in 
union. 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  391 

A  classification  of  voluntary  associations  necessitates  a 
recognition  of  all  the  motives  that  move  men  to  united  action. 
The  classification  of  motives  is  a  problem  for  the  ethicist. 
Clubs  might  well  be  grouped  under  three  headings:  (i)  those 
formed  for  self- advancement ;  (2)  those  formed  for  the  advance- 
ment of  others;  and  (3)  those  formed  for  the  advancement  of  a 
cause.  Most  voluntary  associations  unite  all  these  motives 
and  it  would  be  impossible  to  evaluate  all  organizations  on 
this  basis. 

In  our  studies  the  deliberate  motive  did  not  make  its  appear- 
ance until  the  age  of  twelve  to  fourteen.  Among  the  girls' 
clubs  it  was  found  that  those  clubs  which  were  not  merely 
incidental  to  the  play  life  of  the  group  did  not  appear  until 
about  fourteen.  In  Sheldon's  study  the  group  of  literary, 
music,  and  art  clubs  was  insignificant  until  fourteen.  Among 
boys  the  growth  of  the  deliberate  motive  is  harder  to  trace. 
Johnson's  study,  "Rudimentary  Society  among  Boys"  (44) 
furnishes  an  excellent  example  of  the  way  rules  develop  by 
the  trial  and  error  method.  In  the  McDonough  School, 
isolated  several  miles  from  Baltimore,  these  boys  were  com- 
paratively free  from  suggestion.  Having  new  situations  to 
face  they  worked  out  original  rules  in  regard  to  the  gathering 
of  nuts  and  eggs,  catching  rabbits  and  muskrats.  A  picture 
which  more  truly  parallels  the  actual  process  of  development, 
as  it  occurs  in  an  unisolated  situation,  is  that  painted  by  Pres. 
Hall  in  "The  Story  of  a  Sand- Pile"  (36).  Gulick's  study  re- 
viewed above,  showed  that  co-operative  games  appear  after  the 
age  of  twelve.  Such  games  require  some  degree  of  planning 
and  forethought,  though  to  a  lesser  degree  than  is  required  in  a 
voluntary  literary  club,  because  all  the  boy's  previous  training 
has  been  in  athletics.  The  beginning  of  the  high  school  period 
is  as  early  as  deliberate  motives  play  any  great  role  either  in 
boys'  or  girls'  clubs. 

In  summary  of  our  consideration  of  the  dynamic  mental 
factors  involved  in  the  formation  of  the  club :  All  clubs  are  at 
base  founded  as  the  result  of  the  innate  tendency  to  be  sociable,  i 
But  the  club  may  be  formed  either  as  the  result  of  contagion 
or  of  reflection.  In  the  experience  of  the  individual  it  is 
formed  first  through  contagion;  later  through  deliberation. 
In  the  adult  club  both  forces  are  at  work. 

Chap.  III.     The  Mental  Conditions  Necessary  to  the  Formation 
of  the  Club 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  aim  was  to  present  all  the 
mental  forces  which  in  their  functioning  produce  the  club. 
They  are  the  seed ;  their  fruit  is  the  club ;  but  the  soil  of  human 


392  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

nature  which  is  the  environment  in  which  their  development 
occurs  must  needs  be  of  a  peculiar  sort.  There  are  certain 
conditions  necessary  to  the  formation  of  the  club,  which  it  is 
the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  discuss. 

The  first  condition  is  that  there  be  individual  differences  in 
«  the  capacity  of  leadership.  In  group  activity  it  is  necessary 
that  there  be  some  one  to  take  the  initiative,  to  be  the  leader. 
There  can  be  no  united  action  where  all  are  blind  followers 
with  none  to  suggest  or  guide.  However,  it  seldom  happens 
that  any  group  assembles  in  which  there  is  no  one  who  pos- 
sesses more  ability  as  a  leader  than  do  the  others.  This  is  one 
of  the  commonest  of  individual  differences.  In  children,  as  in 
adults  some  are  leaders,  a  greater  number  are  followers. 
Mumford  has  written  a  thesis  on  this  subject.  Groos  says: 

"The  blind  obedience  accorded  a  leader  of  a  little  band  is  calculated 
to  fill  parents  and  teachers  with  envy.  Here  the  social  impulse  is  supreme 
in  the  demand  for  association  and  classification  which  governs  and  directs 
society.  .  .  The  common  fighting  plays  of  children  markedly  exhibit 
this  voluntary  submission  to  a  leader,  less  known,  I  think,  in  regulation 
games  than  in  the  many  contests  which  a  crowd  of  children  will  naturally 
fall  into  when  a  few  belligerent  spirits  are  present;  when  there  is  a  trick  to  be 
played  on  schoolmates  or  janitor,  or  an  orchard  to  plunder,  some  unpopular 
person  to  annoy  by  breaking  his  windows  or  otherwise  damaging  his 
property — in  these  escapades  the  leader's  word  has  absolute  authority,  and 
the  most  docile  children  will  commit  deeds  in  blind  obedience  which  fill 
their  parents  with  amazement  and  horror."  (31,  pp.  338-39.) 

The  studies  of  clubs  show  the  importance  of  leadership. 
Leadership  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  characteristics  of  the 
gang,  as  shown  particularly  by  Puffer's  study.  Leadership 
is  less  prominent  in  girls'  than  in  boys'  clubs.  This  is  to  be 
explained,  probably,  by  the  nature  of  the  activities  of  the  two 
sexes,  or  on  the  sexual  differences  which  determine  the  activi- 
ties. The  physical  activity  of  boys  demands  leadership; 
in  sewing,  serving  tea  and  social  activities  there  is  less  occasion 
for  leadership.  Most  of  the  cases  where  officers  existed  in 
girls'  clubs  may  be  explained  by  contagion.  One  girl  reported 
that  there  was  no  definite  term  of  office,  but  new  officers 
were  elected  whenever  they  felt  the  need  of  some  excitement, 
thus  the  fact  was  revealed  that  in  this  case  the  election  of 
officers  was  merely  another  play  activity.  Interesting  in  this 
connection  is  the  comment  of  Groos  : 

"It  seems  that  those  manifestations  of  the  social  impulse  relating  to 
subordination  are  not  pursued  by  women  so  energetically  nor  in  the  same 
way  as  by  men.  Woman  is  the  guardian  of  good  form,  but  as  a  rule  she 
will  not  subordinate  herself  to  rigorous  law.  I  think  any  customs  agent 
will  bear  me  out  in  the  statement  from  his  observation  of  the  behavior 
of  travellers.  This  probably  results  from  a  difference  in  the  instinctive 
equipment  of  the  sexes;  fighting  impulses  which  are  strongly  developed  in 
the  males,  further  the  social  ones  by  reason  of  their  imperative  require- 
ment of  association.  .  .  The  success  of  American  women  in  their 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY  393 

movement  for  emancipation  is  largely  furthered  by  their  participation  with 
men  in  various  sports  and  the  consequent  better  development  of  their 
social  capacities  (31,  p. 339-40). 

The  second  condition  necessary  to  the  formation  of  the  club 
is  congeniality  of  interests.  "The  term  interest,"  says  Miss 
Calkins,  "  is  best  used  as  a  synonym  for  involuntary  attention  " 
(15,  p.  103);  or  as  Dewey  states  it,  interest  "is  impulse 
functioning  with  reference  to  an  ideal  of  self-expression" 
(23,  p.  22).  The  direction  of  one's  interests  is  determined  by 
temperament,  that  is,  by  inherited  Anlagen,  and  by  the  type 
of  experience  lived  through.  Dewey  says :  "they  (the  occupa- 
tions of  the  individual)  decide  the  sets  of  objects  and  relations 
that  are  important,  and  therefore  provide  the  content  or  mate- 
rial of  attention,  and  the  qualities  that  are  interestingly  signifi- 
cant" (24,  p.  220).  The  interests  of  young  children  are  similar, 
since  temperament  is  but  dimly  manifest  until  self-conscious- 
ness develops,  and  because  early  experience  is  approximately 
alike  for  all.  The  children  of  master  and  slave  play  together 
in  perfect  harmony.  In  later  years  social  equality  is  impossible 
because  of  the  disparity  of  interests.  Similarity  of  experience 
or  training,  in  individuals  of  similar  native  interests,  tends 
to  give  approximately  the  same  level  of  ability,  the  same  level 
of  apperceptive  mass;  ability  to  understand  the  same  ideas, 
to  appreciate  the  same  art  and  literature  and  music,  to  carry 
on  the  same  activities  of  work  and  play;  opportunity  to  enjoy 
the  same  social  status,  to  see  about  the  same  amount  of  the 
world,  to  mix  with  about  the  same  class  of  people ;  in  sum,  to 
develop  the  same  interests. 

A  club  to  be  durable  must  be  formed  by  people  having  the 
same  type  of  interests.  Women's  clubs  must  consist  of  women 
of  the  same  social  stratum.  There  can  be  no  working  together, 
between  the  woman  on  the  rag-time  level  of  appreciation  and 
the  woman  on  the  symphony  level.  A  social  club  is  unsuccess- 
ful in  which  some  members  know  of  nothing  to  converse  but 
gossip,  while  others  have  broadly  trained  interests.  Young 
boys  and  girls  can't  get  along  together  in  clubs  because  their 
interests  are  absolutely  different.  Miss  Addams  calls  "the 
companionship  of  mutual  interests  is  the  soundest  of  social 
bonds"  (4.  p.  151).  Ross  says  the  labor  union  is  due  not  to  a 
spirit  of  association,  but  interlacing  interests  (65,  p.  181). 
Those  who  would  work  for  unity  of  different  religious  denomina- 
tions should  not  overlook  this  fact.  It  is  by  no  means  implied 
in  this  connection  that  the  different  members  be  of  like  minds ; 
that  is,  agree  in  their  points  of  view  in  regard  to  religion, 
politics  or  what  not,  but  it  does  mean  that  they  agree  in  having 
an  interest  in  the  ultimately  true  position  in  regard  to  these 
matters.  It  must  needs  follow,  then,  that  they  will  be 


394 


A   STUDY   IN    SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 


undogmatic  enough  to  recognize  the  possibility  that  some 
other  then  their  own  viewpoint  may  be  the  right  one.  A  very 
good  club  may  be  formed  of  Jews,  Catholics,  Protestants  and 
atheists;  they  may  meet  on  the  basis  of  congeniality  of  interest 
if,  back  of  their  desire  to  support  each  his  own  view,  there  be  a 
common  interest  in  the  truth. 

Ratzelhpfer  considered  interests  to  be  the  ultimate  psycho- 
logical factors  which  differentiate  groups  in  society  (62).  He 
failed  to  recognize,  however,  the  deeper  underlying  forces 
which  develop  individual  interests.  He  over-emphasized 
native  interests  and  underestimated  the  power  of  training. 
Moreover  he  was  dealing  with  the  larger  groups  which  con- 
stitute society.  Our  position  is,  merely,  that  congeniality 
of  interests  forms  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  successful  club. 

In  the  formation  of  clubs  failure  is  often  experienced,  as  in 
many  other  movements,  the  stated  reason  being  that  the  time 
was  not  yet  ripe.  Translating  this  metaphor  into  a  psycho- 
logical statement,  we  would  say :  a  sufficient  number  of  people 
had  not  acquired  the  same  particular  interest.  The  history 
of  the  woman's  club  movement  illustrates  this.  To  use  a 
specific  case,  the  attempt  at  Seneca  Falls,  N.  Y.,  in  1848,  to 
form  a  suffrage  society,  was  a  failure.  The  club  could  not 
get  more  than  twenty  members  and  only  lasted  about  a  year 
because  as  the  organizer  said :  ' '  Amongst  my  own  sex  I  found 
too  many  on  whom  ages  of  repression  had  wrought  their 
natural  effect  and  whose  ideas  and  aspirations  were  narrowed 
to  the  confines  of  '  woman's  sphere,'  beyond  whose  limits  it  was 
not  only  impious,  but  was  infamous  to  tread."  In  other  words 
they  were  not  interested  in  this  movement. 

Consciously  or  unconsciously  clubs  recognize  the  necessity 
of  congeniality  of  interests,  and  realize  further  that  the  more 
the  congeniality  the  sounder  is  the  foundation  of  the  club. 
Observe  the  eligibility  tests  employed  by  the  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution  and  that  type  of  society  as  a  means  of 
keeping  out  the  undesirables.  Social  clubs  require  an  extra- 
ordinary initiation  fee  because  they  want  only  such  as  have 
sufficient  wealth  to  be  interesed  in  the  same  general  atmosphere 
of  recreation  and  wine.  The  American  Psychological  Asso- 
ciation requires  of  candidates  that  they  be  of  a  certain  rank 
in  the  profession,  in  order  that  they  may  be  confident  that  all 
members  shall  have  a  fundamental  interest  in  the  science. 
College  societies,  and  especially  fraternities,  generally  have  a 
certain  individuality.  Men  of  the  same  type  tend  to  get 
together.  Students  recognize  this  freshman  as  a  typical 
Tau  Belt  man  or  cut  out  to  be  a  Chresto.  Occasionally  misfits 
occur;  a  man  gets  into  the  wrong  society.  If  there  are  several 
misfits  in  the  same  club  the  resultant  conflict  of  interests 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  395 

causes  hard  feeling,  disagreement,  inability  to  co-operate  and 
disruption. 

These  two  psychological  factors  are  necessary  as  conditions 
of  the  club's  formation,  viz.,  individual  differences  in  the 
capacity  of  leadership,  and  congeniality  of  interests.  No 
stable  club  can  be  formed  unless  some  one  at  least  of  the  club 
is  a  leader.  Settlement  workers  and  club  directors  learn  to 
recognize  this  when  in  artificially  grouping  boys  or  girls, 
leaders  have  to  be  provided.  Dr.  Krackowizer  describes  two 
cases  of  clubs  that  applied  for  admission  to  the  Boys'  Club  of 
the  Oranges,  and  in  both  cases  the  club  lasted  but  a  week. 
The  fact  was  that  there  were  no  recognized  leaders  in  either 
group.  The  other  necessary  condition  for  club  organization 
is  congeniality  of  interests.  When  both  of  these  conditions 
are  present,  and  only  in  such  cases  is  there  a  possibility  of 
forming  a  club. 

Chap.  III.     Mental  Forces  Produced  by  the  Club 

It  is  the  province  of  this  chapter  to  discuss  the  functional 
aspect  of  the  club,  to  study  the  contribution  of  the  club  to 
mental  life.  Of  those  forces  resulting  from  club  organization, 
the  one  of  most  general  significance  is  that  known  as  the 
social  stimulus.  Although  produced  by  the  club  it  is  not 
peculiar  to  it,  but  is  in  evidence  in  any  group,  whether  or 
not  the  group  is  organized.  The  most  accurate  studies  yet 
made  of  it  are  those  with  school  children.  Schmidt  (72), 
Meumann  (53),  Mayer  (52),  Triplett  (83)  and  others  (13  and 
14)  have  demonstrated  that  in  all  types  of  school  work,  except 
that  requiring  individuality,  better  results  can  be  obtained  of 
children  in  groups  than  separately.  That  this  force  is  some- 
thing different  from  the  stimulus  of  competition  or  ambition 
is  evident  from  the  experience  of  the  actor,  singer  or  lecturer 
who  can  play  his  part  better  under  the  stimulus  of  an  audience 
than  with  empty  seats.  The  group  itself  exerts  a  favorable 
influence.  The  stimulus  is  increased  when  all  the  members  of 
the  group  are  performing  the  same  task.  This  is  illustrated 
by  dancing,  choral  singing,  marching  in  step,  as  Frederick 
demonstrated  in  his  army,  team  work  in  games  or  work, 
shouting  at  a  track  meet,  a  ball  game  or  political  rally,  paced 
work  in  the  laboratory  or  a  paced  race  on  the  track: 

In  the  club  this  group  stimulus  is  always  present  and  of 
greater  power  than  in  unorganized  groups.  In  the  presence 
of  the  members  of  his  own  club  a  man  is  stimulated  to  accom- 
plish feats  and  rise  to  supremer  achievements  than  would  be 
possible  for  him  to  reach  in  any  other  presence.  Since  this 
product  of  club  organization  is  shared  with  every  other  type  of 


396  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

social  life  it  need  be  mentioned  only  incidentally.  Of  much 
greater  significance  are  the  other  forces  to  be  considered,  viz., 
esprit  de  corps,  honor  and  friendship. 

Esprit  de  corps  is  a  sociological  form  which  needs  to  be 
translated  into  psychological  processes.  As  Prof.  James 
pointed  out,  in  his  chapter  on  the  "Consciousness  of  Self:" 
"In  its  widest  possible  sense  a  man's  self  is  a  sum  total  of  all 
that  he  calls  his,  not  only  his  body  and  his  psychic  power,  but 
his  clothes  and  his  house,  his  wife  and  children,  his  ancestors 
and  friends,  his  reputation  and  works,  his  lands  and  horses, 
and  yacht  and  bank-account."  (43,  p.  201.)  The  one  phrase 
of  this  comprehensive  self ,  of  interest  to  us  in  this  connection, 
is  that  which  refers  to  the  group  of  family  and  friends.  The 
child  acquires  a  peculiar  sense  of  belonging  to  his  immediate 
social  group,  and  as  his  group  enlarges,  his  sense  of  belonging 
widens.  There  is  an  attitude  of  satisfaction  in  the  feeling  of 
belonging  to  a  family  or  to  a  community,  which  is  often  not 
recognized  until  one  is  isolated,  relatives  dear  or  estranged,  and 
the  community  cold  and  unappreciative.  It  is  the  loneliness 
that  arises  when  one  feels  that  he  does  not  belong  to  any 
particular  group  that  in  part  explains  why  so  many  answers 
are  received  to  advertisements  of  matrimonial  bureaus. 

This  sense  of  belonging  is  the  germ  of  Baldwin's  "socius," 

which  he  defines  as  "the  higher  sense  of  commonalty,  personal 

^  implication,  mutual  interest  which  social  intercourse  arouses 

^  in  him.     He  (the  boy)  has  a  sense  of  the  socius,  for  example, 

N  when  his  own  school  is  brought  into  rivalry  with  the  school 

J   around  the  corner"   (7,  p.  32).     Later,  Baldwin  says:  "The 

family  esprit  de  corps  has  such  a  firm  root  in  the  breast  of  the 

individual  that  family  action  is  as  necessary  to  him  as  action 

in  his  own  private  interest."     (7.  p.  407.)     Approaching  the 

^  subject  from  a  different  viewpoint  Prof.  Ames  said  in  an  address 

at  Minneapolis,  Dec.,  1910: 

"In  more  sustained  associations  such  as  the  workmen  in  a  factory  experi- 
ence, in  daily  contact,  and  co-operation,  in  their  home  life  and  neighborhood 
relations — there  is  built  up  a  more  elaborate  and  persistent  class  feeling. 
There  is  developed  a  more  definite  sense  of  the  group,  a  feeling  of  loyalty  to 
its  members,  of  obedience  to  its  standards  and  of  devotion  to  its  ideals. 
They  recognize  each  other  with  a  sense  of  kinship  and  exchange  of  confi- 
dence which  they  would  not  show  toward  men  of  another  class.  The  same 
fellow-feeling  springs  up  spontaneously  in  all  men  of  the  same  trade  or 
profession  and  among  any  companies  or  gangs  whose  work  or  fortunes 
bring  them  into  mutual  contact.  Over  and  above  their  explicit  acknowl- 
edgment or  realization,  there  is  present  a  powerful  group  spirit  which  has 
sprung  up  from  their  association." 

Miss  Addams  points  out  that  one  of  the  most  powerful  forces 
pulling  the  boy  to  work  at  fourteen  is,  if  the  family  purse  is 
small,  his  loyalty  and  affection  (3,  p.  126).  Elsewhere  in 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 


397 


this  wonderfully  expressive  book,  "The  Spirit  of  Youth  and 
the  City  Streets,"  she  suggests  that  public  games  be  extended  to 
develop  the  unity  of  feeling  that  is  aroused  by  our  one  national 
game  (3,  p.  96).  In  no  situation  is  esprit  de  corps  more  easily 
aroused  than  in  support  of  the  home  team. 

A  very  suggestive  treatment  of  esprit  de  corps  is  that  of 
Cooley  in  his  "Social  Organization:" 

"The  result  of  intimate  association,  psychologically,  is  a  certain  fusion 
of  individualities  in  a  common  whole,  so  that  one's  very  self,  for  many 
purposes  at  least,  is  the  common  life  and  purpose  of  the  group.  It  is  always 
differentiated  and  usually  a  competitive  unity,  admitting  of  self-assertion 
and  various  appropriative  passions;  but  these  passions  are  socialized  by 
sympathy,  and  come,  or  tend  to  come,  under  the  discipline  of  a  common 
spirit"  (18,  p.  23). 

He  reminds  us  of  how  boys  will  endure  cruelty  and  injustice 
at  the  hands  of  their  fellows,  such  for  instance  as  hazing,  rather 
than  appeal  from  their  fellows  to  their  parents  or  teachers.  In 
such  cases  the  family  esprit  de  corps  is  weaker  than  that  of  the 
student  group. 

Ross  recognizes  the  same  spirit  when  he  writes:  "The  lively 
sense  of  a  common  life  enables  mates,  kinsfolk,  neighbors  and 
comrades  to  love  and  understand  one  another,  to  yield  to  one 
another,  and  to  observe  their  forbearance  and  good  offices 
that  make  associate  life  a  success.  In  such  a  case  the  group 
does  not  make  the  ties;  the  ties  make  the  group"  (65,  p.  432). 

All  these  quotations  show  that  no  matter  what  the  cause  or 
group  of  causes  effecting  the  establishment  of  the  group,  when 
once  established  there  is  added  a  new  cement  to  bind  it 
together.  Davis  expresses  it  in  the  following  way:  "Ideas 
or  sentiments,  and  also  social  institutions,  when  once  in  exist- 
ence become  thereafter  psychic  or  social  factors  in  all  future 
reactions  in  essential  independence  of  their  origin  or  their  origi- 
nal associations.  .  .  .  We  see  daily  private  societies  formed  for 
all  sorts  of  special  purposes,  literary,  charitable,  artistic,  politi- 
cal, what  not.  But  an  organization  has  hardly  been  constituted 
before  it  becomes  an  end  as  well  as  a  means  in  the  lives  of  those 
connected  with  it ;  and  in  that  portion  of  society  which  it  influ- 
ences the  association  functions  not  only  as  a  force  for  turning 
social  agencies  in  a  special  direction  beyond  itself,  but  also  in 
part  for  turning  social  energy  to  itself  to  be  absorbed  therein" 
(22,  p.  207).  It  is  stated  more  concretely  by  Lee:  "And  the 
team  is  not  only  an  extension  of  the  player's  consciousness; 
it  is  a  part  of  his  personality.  His  participation  has  deepened 
from  co-operation  to  membership.  Not  only  is  he  now  a  part 
of  the  team,  but  the  team  is  a  part  of  him.  Membership 
becomes  a  part  of  a  man,  an  essential  part  of  him,  something 
which  cannot  be  taken  away  without  taking  much — indeed 


398  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  greater  and  more  significant  part — of  the  man's  life  with 
it"  (48,  p.  490). 

Puffer's  and  Browne's  studies  show  the  strong  part  which 
loyalty  to  the  group  plays.  Among  many  examples  given  by 
Browne,  is  found  this:  "  Boy  in  D — 's  gang  stole  some  cherries. 
He  was  reported  to  the  boarding  school  by  the  woman  who 
owned  the  cherries.  Her  description  tallied  with  that  of  D — . 
He  was  whipped  for  the  offender,  although  he  was  not  the  boy 
that  did  it;  yet  he  did  not  tell  on  the  guilty  boy"  (12,  p.  271). 
We  quoted  in  the  section  on  gangs  Robert  Woods's  description 
of  loyalty  to  the  gang,  and  how  one  boy  of  his  acquaintance, 
though  his  family  had  moved  to  Dorchester,  and  he  had  out- 
grown the  old  gang  in  education,  still  made  it  his  custom  to  re- 
turn to  the  old  corner  on  Sundays.  The  blood  feud  of  the 
Kentucky  mountains,  the  sympathetic  strike,  refusing  to  bet 
against  your  own  college,  or  turning  down  the  offer  of  a  higher 
salaried  professorship  because  of  loyalty  to  the  old  school — 
scores  of  illustrations  could  be  piled  up  to  show  the  working  of 
esprit  de  corps;  but  these  will  suffice. 

One  particular  element  in  esprit  de  corps,  present  in  some 
more  than  in  others  is  the  feeling  that  one's  own  group  is 
better  than  any  other.  One's  own  interest  is  always  more 
important  in  his  eyes,  and  more  valuable,  than  that  of  any 
other.  One's  own  club  is  better  than  any  other.  This  is  only  a 
broadening  of  the  positive  self-feeling  that  manifests  itself  in 
the  feeling  that,  after  all,  the  things  of  my  own  life  are  of  more 
value  for  me  than  are  the  things  of  any  one  else.  This  is  the 
basal  idea  in  the  expression:  'number  one  first,'  or  in  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation.  Applied  to  the  group,  one  of  the 
manifestations  of  this  spirit  is  in  the  clique.  The  differentiat- 
ing element  in  this  type  of  group  spirit  is  the  feeling  of  caste, 
or  of  exclusiveness  and  aloofness.  This  was  found  in  many  of 
the  girls'  clubs.  From  our  data  we  cannot  entirely  agree  with 
O'Shea's  observation  that:  "Until  adolescence  the  child 
seldom  recognizes  caste  stratification"  (58,  p.  15).  Continu- 
ing, he  says  that  dress  plays  no  part  in  the  groupings  of  boys, 
and  its  role  among  girls  up  to  the  sixth  or  seventh  grade,  is  of 
slight  importance.  With  adolescence  comes  differentiation  of 
groups  on  the  basis  of  wealth.  Sororities  and  fraternities  grow  in 
high  school,  or  even  in  the  seventh  or  eighth  grade  more  among 
girls  than  among  boys.  This  differentiation  takes  place  more 
in  the  social  activities  than  in  the  games  and  athletics.  Our 
observation  would  be  that  the  feeling  of  caste  is  present  with 
preadolescents,  but  becomes  stronger  at  puberty.  Sheldon 
found  the  expression  of  caste  earlier  than  puberty.  His 
conclusion  was  that  the  feeling  of  caste  reached  its  culmination 
at  about  ten.  "While  its  expression  in  the  form  of  bullying 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 


399 


and  teasing,  as  might  be  supposed,  is  more  intensive  among 
boys,  the  feeling  of  exclusiveness  and  pride  appears  much 
stronger  in  girls.  Girls,  if  so  told  by  their  mothers,  think  them- 
selves too  good  to  play  with  girls  of  the  working  classes  or  of 
alien  nationalities.  Boys,  on  the  contrary,  will  often  run  away 
and  disobey  parental  injunctions  to  get  a  chance  to  play  football 
or  baseball  with  boys  of  any  nationality,  Italians,  Jews,  Irish  or 
even  negroes"  (67,  p.  435-36).  Our  data  do  not  uphold  the 
conclusion  that  cast  feeling  culminates  at  ten,  however,  but 
that  it  grows  more  intense  with  age,  at  least  until  the  end  of  the 
high  school  period,  as  observations  of  high  school  students 
show. 

The  statement  made  above  is  that  the  clique  spirit  is  &\ 
broadening  of  positive  self-feeling.     The  process  would  seem  I  j 
to  be  this :  in  the  group  activity  the  individual,  originally  self-  • 
centered,  by  continual  buffeting  about  by  other  self-centered 
children,   gradually  learns    to  recognize    the  rights   of    the 
others  of  his  group.     This  process  was  described  in  detail 
above.     After  a  while  the  children  learn  to  do  team  work  and 
there  develops  a  feeling  that  their  team  is  better  than  any  other 
team ;  not  necessarily  that  they  can  play  better,  but  they  are 
better.     The  native  tendency  of  each  individual  to  regard 
himself  as  of  more  value  than  others,  which  is  the  root  of  the 
caste  spirit,  becomes  ascribed  to  the  group,  with  the  result  that 
the  individual's  own  group  becomes  more  valuable  in  his  eyes 
than  any  other.     The  growth  of  the  caste  spirit  parallels  that  of 
co-operative  play,  which  becomes  well  established  by  puberty. 

The  general  observation  is  that  the  caste  spirit  is  stronger 
in  girls  than  in  boys.  May  not  the  explanation  be,  that, 
whether  or  not  the  girl  of  to-day  is  born  with  that  diathesis, 
woman's  experience  has  been  such  as  to  develop  the  caste 
spirit  in  her  to  a  higher  degree  than  man's  experience  has  in 
him?  Through  group  activity  boys  and  girls  alike  develop  a 
feeling  of  superiority  as  respects  their  own  group.  Boys' 
groups,  however,  compete  constantly  with  other  groups,  and 
the  process  that  went  on  earlier  between  individuals  now 
transpires  between  groups,  and  a  feeling  of  superiority  is 
developed  for  a  still  broader  group.  Team  spirit  develops 
into  school  spirit,  and  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to,  and  assumption 
of  superiority  to  the  school,  is  greater  than  that  to  the  class. 
This  experience  is  not  generally  true  of  girls.  Their  loyalty  to, 
and  ascription  of  superiority  to  their  set,  remains  much 
stronger  than  that  of  boys,  and  the  accompanying  fact  is  that 
the  girls'  set  has  little  opportunity  to  compete  with  and  be 
defeated  by  other  sets.  It  has  been  the  writer's  experience 
in  a  co-educational  college  that  the  girls  support  their  class 
basket  ball  team  as  loyally  as  do  the  men,  but  that  it  is  harder 


400  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

for  them  to  co-operate  with  their  erstwhile  opponents  to  com- 
pete against  another  school  than  it  is  for  the  boys.  An 
incidentally  concomitant  fact  is  that  girls  take  defeat  harder 
than  do  boys.  Many  other  manifestations  of  this  phenomenon 
might  be  cited,  such  as  woman's  greater  family  pride,  interest 
in  genealogy  and  the  like.  Unless  by  competition  with  other  ^ 
groups  our  group  becomes  disillusioned,  this  spirit  of  superi- 
ority acquires  a  very  narrow  character  and  a  clique  is  formed. 
Girls  rise  to  the  level  of  loyalty  to  a  small  group  and  tend  toJ 
remain  on  that  level,  because  of  lack  of  competition  between 
groups,  while  boys  get  over  their  clannishness  by  competition 
with  other  groups. 

The  relationship  of  the  clique  spirit  to  esprit  de  corps  is 
thus  evident.  Esprit  de  corps  is  a  sentiment  that  does  not  exist 
until  the  group  is  formed,  but  it  appears  with  the  group  and 
is  one  of  the  strongest  forces  holding  the  group  together. 

Another  psychic  force  peculiar  to  the  group,  and  of  particular 
importance  as  a  product  of  club  organization,  is  honor. 
Simmel  shows  the  intermediacy  of  honor  between  morality 
and  criminal  law  as  a  determinant  of  conduct.  Morality  is 
the  personal  standard  of  behavior ;  criminal  law  is  that  stand- 
ard required  as  a  minimum  by  the  state.  The  code  of  honor 
is  set  by  the  small  social  group  and  is  different  for  different 
groups  (69,  p.  680-82).  The  more  firmly  established  the  group 
and  the  more  individual  its  character,  the  stronger  is  the  hold 
it  has  upon  the  conduct  of  its  members. 

There  is  a  close  relationship  between  esprit  de  corps  and 
honor.  In  intensity  the  correlation  is  direct.  The  stronger 
the  feeling  of  attachment  the  individual  has  for  the  group, 
the  more  is  he  bound  to  conduct  himself  in  accordance  with 
the  code  of  the  group.  In  clubs  of  long  standing,  such  as  the 
Masonic  Order,  the  code  of  honor  is  often  of  greater  strength 
than  is  that  of  morality,  when,  for  example,  lodge  brothers 
are  shielded  from  punishment  for  infractions  of  law.  It  is 
not  generally  the  rule,  however,  that  honor  and  morality  are 
antagonistic;  they  usually  supplement  and  reinforce  each 
other.  One  of  the  most  common  features  of  honor  among  clubs 
is  this  rule  which  demands  that  fellow  members  be  assisted 
in  times  of  adversity,  sickness  or  death  in  the  family,  be  sup- 
ported when  running  for  office  in  the  community,  be  defended 
from  calumny  and,  as  in  the  case  cited  above,  be  shielded  from 
justice.  It  is  not  honorable  to  '  snitch,'  or  inform  the  authori- 
ties, when  one  of  the  gang  has  done  wrong.  The  gang  have 
their  own  standards  of  conduct  which  concern  the  essential 
features  of  their  mutual  relationships,  and  to  transcend  one 
of  these  rules  is  often  to  lose  membership  in  the  gang.  So  it 
is  with  the  ' honor  of  a  gentleman.'  To  fail  in  any  of  its  tenets 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  401 

is  to  lose  caste  in  that  fraternity.  In  some  sections  of  the 
country  the  esprit  de  corps  of  the  group  of  'gentlemen'  is  as 
strong  as  that  of  a  sworn  brotherhood.  Professional  honor  is 
particularly  strong  among  physicians.  Through  this  unwritten 
code  incompetent  physicians  who,  because  of  their  ignorance, 
carelessness  or  lack  of  skill,  fail  to  save  the  lives  of  their 
patients,  are  allowed  to  continue  practicing  because  no  one  of 
their  gild  will  expose  them.  Another  point  in  their  code  is  the 
rule  of  secrecy  regarding  disease  which  permits  undesirable 
marriages.  In  the  profession  of  law  the  code  of  honor  is 
formulated  in  written  rules.  It  is  acknowledged  by  this  code 
that  a  lawyer  may  undertake  with  propriety  the  defense  of 
a  person  accused  of  crime,  although  he  knows  or  believes  him 
guilty.  As  an  individual  member  of  society  governed  by  the 
standards  of  morality  the  lawyer  believes  this  guilty  man 
should  be  punished ;  as  a  lawyer,  governed  by  the  standards  of 
honor  in  his  profession,  he  is  bound  to  exert  himself  to  the 
utmost  to  prevent  the  fulfillment  of  justice.  So  each  well 
organized  club  and  each  well  defined  social  group  has  its  code 
of  honor.  Reacting  upon  the  club  the  effect  of  honor  is  to 
strengthen  the  ties  that  bind  it  together;  as  to  its  influence 
upon  the  social  organism  as  a  whole  we  need  not  here  lay 
emphasis.  Few  moralists,  however,  have  recognized  how 
large  that  influence  is  in  determining  conduct. 

Another  factor,  the  effect  of  which  is  to  solidify  the  once 
formed  group,  is  friendship.  To  be  sure,  in  children's  clubs  a 
condition  of  friendship  exists  before  the  club  is  formed.  This  is 
not  always  the  case  with  adults.  When  such  a  group  forms  a 
club,  friendship  arises  as  a  result  of  association  in  a  common 
task.  Jones  has  called  this  emotion  the  feeling  of  attachment 
(45,  p.  60-79),  which  is  another  expression  for  the  feeling  of 
belonging,  which  was  made  the  basal  element  in  esprit  de  corps. 
This  sociological  mode  and  that  of  friendship  have  the  same 
psychological  foundation.  As  Cooley  puts  it:  "Group  senti- 
ment, in  so  far  as  it  is  aroused  by  definite  images,  is  only  a 
variety  of  personal  sentiment "  ( 1 8,  p.  79) .  Being  admitted  to 
a  club  arouses  a  feeling  of  attachment  for  the  group;  in  a 
similar  way,  though  to  a  more  intense  degree,  being  admitted  to 
the  confidence  of  another  person  arouses  a  feeling  of  attach- 
ment. Jane  Addams  says  that :  "no  two  persons,  nor  group  of 
persons  can  come  into  affectionate  relationship  with  each  other 
unless  they  carry  on  together  a  mutual  task"  (4,  p.  271). 

The  origin  of  personal  affection  is  to  be  found  in  the  relation- 
ship of  mother  and  child,  as  Sutherland  has  proved  with  a 
wealth  of  data  (79).  Love  is  developed  through  service.  Ribot 
states  it  in  this  way :  "  It  is  an  observed  fact  that  a  man  attaches 
himself  to  another  in  proportion  to  the  service  he  renders, 


402  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 

rather  than  to  those  he  receives  from  him"  (63,  p.  294).  How- 
ever the  feeling  of  attachment  may  arise,  its  intensification  is 
accomplished  by  the  same  process  the  race  experienced,  namely 
in  service.  Service  has  another  effect,  moreover,  which  it  is 
important  to  consider  in  this  connection.  The  mental  process 
of  doing  things  for  another  person  develops  not  only  a  feeling 
of  attachment  for  that  person,  but  a  subordination  of  self  to 
that  person.  So  also  when  one  works  for  a  group  or  for  a 
cause.  Thus  friendship  and  esprit  de  corps  each  presuppose 
an  Einstellung  that  is  characterized  by  unselfishness.  It 
therefore  becomes  made  more  evident  that  these  two  forces  do 
have  a  powerful  influence  in  the  preservation  of  the  club. 
These  mental  processes  are  the  sine  qua  non  of  co-operation. 
In  this  connection  the  relationship  of  chumship  (if  we  may  be 
permitted  to  coin  the  term)  and  the  club  is  en  rapport.  Bon- 
ser's  study  of  this  type  of  friendship  showed  that  chumming 
begins  before  four  years ;  with  girls  the  age  of  greatest  fre- 
quency is  six ;  with  boys  the  curve  rises  more  slowly,  reaching 
its  apex  at  ten.  These  friendships,  as  a  rule,  continue  unbroken 
at  least  until  the  latter  high  school  years,  which  was  the  age 
of  the  boys  and  girls  when  they  reported.  This  shows  that 
the  feeling  of  attachment  for  individuals  appears  earlier  than 
for  institutions  or  groups.  There  appears  to  be  no  conflict 
between  the  institutions  of  chumship  and  the  club.  Bonser 
found  the  existence  of  chumships  almost  universal.  The 
great  majority  of  children  also  belong  to  clubs.  The  general 
situation  would  appear  to  be  as  it  is  described  by  one  reporter : 
'  'Every  girl  has  her  special  friend,  some  one  to  whom  she  tells 
everything.  They  can  have  fine  times  together,  but  if  they 
belong  to  a  club  and  make  friends  with  the  other  girls,  they 
have  many  friends  besides  each  other." 

Chap.  IV.     Other  Mental  Forces  which  Aid  the  Continuation  of 

the  Club 

Aside  from  those  dynamic  processes  which  produce  the  club, 
and  aside  from  the  forces  which  owe  their  existence  to  the 
club,  there  are  other  forces  which,  if  present,  favor  the  continu- 
ation  of  the  club's  life,  viz.,  those  that  appeal  to  fundamental 
human  needs,  furnish  expression  to  native  impulses  or  sat- 
isfy instincts.  The  discussion  of  the  more  important  of 
these  forces,  as  employed  by  the  club,  is  the  task  of  this 
chapter;  love  of  the  mysterious,  the  satisfaction  of  positive 
self-feeling,  acquisitiveness  and  curiosity  by  secrecy  and 
ritualism;  satiating  the  desire  to  realize  the  ideal  through  the 
dramatic  features;  satisfaction  of  religious  and  altruistic 
tendencies  in  philanthropic  and  religious  activities;  fulfilling 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL   PSYCHOLOGY 


403 


the  demands  for  recreation  and  physical  exercise  through  ath- 
letics, sports  and  games  of  chance  and  skill ;  and  answering  these 
and  other  needs  by  the  flamboyancy  of  big  titles,  benevolence 
and  life  insurance,  literary,  art  and  musical  features.  Clubs 
may  consciously  aim  to  satisfy  these  needs  or  may  do  so  incident- 
ally; they  may  plan  deliberately  to  accomplish  these  ends, 
or  they  may  accept  these  features  as  the  force  of  contagion. 
Again  the  same  activity  may  satisfy  different  needs  in  dif- 
ferent individuals  or  groups.  Secrecy,  for  instance,  plays  a 
distinctly  different  r61e  in  the  fraternal  order  to-day  than  it 
played  in  the  heretical  sects  of  the  Reformation.  The  need 
of  protection,  moreover,  is  more  fully  satisfied  by  secrecy  in  the 
Camorra  or  any  anti-social  organization  to-day  than  it  is  in 
the  Masonic  Order. 

For  the  sake  of  clearness  it  will  prove  more  effective  to 
centre  the  discussion  about  the  different  activities  and  practices 
of  clubs  than  to  discuss  the  different  instinctive  tendencies 
separately.  The  first  of  these  to  be  treated  is  secrecy.  His- 
torically the  principal  role  of  secrecy  has  been  the  provision 
of  protection  to  the  members  of  an  order  joined  together  for 
some  motive  opposed  by  the  powers,  or  by  some  power  strong 
enough  to  be  given  attention.  In  modern  society  some  of  the 
best  examples  are  given  by  the  secret  societies  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  discussing  heretical  beliefs  about  religion, 
politics,  philosopy  and  science,  such  as  Der  Palmbaum,  the 
Anabaptists,  Waldensians  and  the  orders  of  the  Illuminati 
(17  and  37).  In  America  to-day  there  is  no  need  of  secrecy  in 
order  to  avoid  suppression  of  religious,  political  or  intellectual 
societies.  The  anti-social  clubs  of  thieves,  pickpockets,  tramps 
and  other  outlaws  are  the  only  organizations  in  which  this 
human  need  is  supplied  by  secrecy.  Criminology  furnishes  a 
great  variety  of  usages  of  secrecy  as  a  means  of  protection. 
Havelock  Ellis  gives  illustrations  of  the  type  of  slang  or  argot 
used,  which  is  peculiar  to  their  class,  and  entirely  unintelligible 
to  any  but  those  in  the  bond  (25,  p.  161-69).  Gross  in  his 
Kriminal- Psychologic  refers  to  the  use  of  sprachliche  Miss- 
verstandniss,  a  use  of  language  in  such  a  way  that  the  hearer 
knows  that  the  meaning  is  something  other  than  that  spoken, 
and  the  speaker  knows  that  the  hearer  will  understand  him  as 
meaning  something  different  than  what  is  said  (33,  p.  383). 
The  Handbook  of  Criminal  Investigation  (32)  describes  the 
disguises,  false  names,  pretended  illnesses,  signs  and  signals, 
slang,  ciphers,  secret  writings  and  graphic  signs,  used  by 
criminals  and  tramps. 

But  secrecy  is  still  a  very  prominent  element  in  many  of  our 
clubs,  among  both  adults  and  children.  This  suggests  that 
it  serves  other  needs  than  protection.  One  of  these  which  it 


404  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

feeds  is  positive  self-feeling.  On  this  point,  Simmel,  who  has 
given  us  the  best  discussion  of  the  sociology  of  secrecy,  says : 
'  'There  is  separation  from  others  because  there  is  unwillingness 
to  give  oneself  a  character  common  with  that  of  others, 
because  there  is  a  desire  to  signal  one's  superiority  as  compared 
with  these  others.  .  .  As  a  consequence  of  the  fact  that 
those  who  want  to  distinguish  themselves  enter  into  combina- 
tion, there  results  an  aristocracy  which  strengthens  and,  so 
to  speak,  expands  the  self-consciousness  of  the  individuals 
through  the  weight  of  their  own  sum.  .  .  We  may  observe, 
even  in  school  classes,  how  small,  closely  attached  groups  of 
comrades,  through  the  mere  formal  fact  that  they  form  a 
special  group,  come  to  consider  themselves  an  elite,  compared 
with  the  rest  who  are  unorganized;  while  the  latter,  by  their 
enmity  and  jealousy,  involuntarily  recognize  that  higher 
value.  In  these  cases  secrecy  and  pretense  of  secrecy  (Geheim- 
nistnerei}  are  means  of  building  higher  the  wall  of  separation, 
and  therein  a  reinforcement  of  the  aristocratic  nature  of  the 
group  "  (76,  p.  486-87).  Simmel  would  give  a  different  account 
of  the  development  of  the  clique  than  seems  to  us  to  be  its 
genetic  history,  but  his  emphasis  of  secrecy  is  very  patent. 
An  illustration  of  what  Simmel  describes  is  provided  in  this 
description  of  a  ten  year  old  girl's  club :  '  'We  were  very  select 
and  had  many  secrets  which  we  were  sure  to  mention  when 
there  was  any  one  around  whom  we  wanted  to  make  jealous." 
That  is,  positive  self-feeling,  in  the  form  of  a  feeling  of  superi- 
ority is  satisfied.  But  this  reveals  the  fact  that  the  secret 
has  intrinsic  value,  which  fact  introduces  another  element. 

Acquisitiveness,  or  the  desire  to  possess,  is  tickled  by  the 
possession  of  a  secret.  To  have  a  secret  is  to  have  something 
some  one  else  wants  and  therefore  it  is  of  some  worth.  Some- 
times the  whole  value  of  a  secret  is  the  fact  that  those  outside 
the  compact  do  not  know  it  and  want  to.  That  is,  curiosity 
is  aroused,  and  anything  that  arouses  curiosity  is  of  value, 
as  the  proprietors  of  dime  museums  and  side-shows  well  know. 
'The  people  like  to  be  fooled;'  that  is,  they  know  that  they 
will  be  made  to  feel  foolish,  but  their  curiosity  is  so  strong 
they  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  satisfy  it.  Children 
unconsciously  recognize  this  when  they  invent  sign  languages, 
peculiar  gestures  of  the  hands,  carry  on  nonsense  gibberish 
and  unintelligible  whisperings.  An  instance  of  this  kind  was 
recorded  above. 

To  answer  the  question :  why  does  the  secret  arouse  curiosity? 
is  to  disclose  the  primary  source  of  value,  namely  the  love  of 
the  mysterious.  As  shown  by  the  mystic  in  religious,  by 
spiritism,  telepathy,  slight  of  hand  and  conjuring,  the  mask 
ball  and  ghost  stories  and  fairy  tales,  the  love  of  the  mysteri- 


A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  405 

ous  is  a  strong  motive  power.  It  is  this  which  furnishes  the 
energy  which  runs  most  of  the  machinery  of  secrecy.  As  it 
works  out,  it  involves  other  fundamental  tendencies;  first, 
curiosity,  which  becomes  involved  in  acquisitiveness,  and  this 
in  positive  self-feeling. 

The  different  stages  of  this  process  are  illustrated  by  these  examples: 
The  illustration  referred  to  above  shows  the  love  of  the  mysterious.  This 
report  shows  the  value  of  it  in  holding  the  club  together.  "The  first  club 
to  which  I  belonged  was  composed  of  five  little  girls.  Each  member  wore 
a  badge  of  blue  and  yellow  ribbon.  It  was  a  secret  society.  We  met  in  the 
afternoon  after  school  and  just  had  a  good  time  enjoying  games  and  other 
amusements.  This  club  only  lasted  three  weeks  because  some  of  its 
members,  who  were  six  and  seven  years  of  age,  made  the  secret  known  to  the 
public  in  general."  In  many  cases  the  content  of  the  secret  is  of  no  impor- 
tance. The  first  thing  to  appear  is  the  fact  of  the  secret;  afterwards  the 
secret  acquires  content.  The  that  is  at  first  of  more  importance  than 
the  what.  This  is  illustrated  in  a  club  of  girls  nine  and  ten  years  of  age. 
"About  six  or  seven  of  us  who  always  played  together  wanted  to  have  a 
secret.  This  part  was  voluntary,  but  we  could  n't  think  of  a  nice  enough 
secret,  so  one  of  our  mothers  suggested  that  we  should  always  be  good 
friends.  The  rest  was  all  voluntary  such1  as  wearing  little  bows  and  having 
parties.  I  think  this  lasted  about  a  year."  The  same  condition  is  very  nearly 
paralleled  in  the  adult  organization.  Joseph  C.  Root  founded  and  wrote 
the  ritual  for  two  absolutely  distinct  secret  societies,  the  Modern  Woodmen 
of  America  and  the  Woodmen  of  the  World,  and  was  also  a  member  of  the 
Odd  Fellows,  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  the  United  Workmen,  the  American 
Legion  of  Honor,  and  was  a  thirty-second  degree  Scottish  Rite  Mason. 
It  is  quite  evident  that  the  content  of  the  ritual  is  of  less  importance  than 
the  fact  that  there  is  one.  The  ritual  is  a  secret,  the  possession  of  which 
makes  the  order  richer  in  its  assets.  Freemasonry  itself  owes  not  a  little 
of  its  prestige  to  the  profoundness  of  its  secrecy.  Yet  in  progressive 
Masonry  the  roll  of  membership,  its  purposes  and  acts  are  public  property; 
silence  is  required  solely  in  regard  to  its  sacred  rites.  The  same  thing  is 
true  of  student  societies.  Sudermann  in  the  drama,  "Der  Sturmgeselle 
Socrates,"  tells  a  fine  story  of  a  group  of  men  who  continue  in  their  old 
age  to  get  immense  satisfaction  out  of  a  secret  society  formed  during  their 
student  days.  Then  there  was  reason  for  the  secrecy;  now  it  is  absolutely 
unnecessary,  and  yet  it  constitutes  the  chief  raison  d'etre  of  the  club. 
Stevens  describes  over  thirty  occult,  hermetic,  theosophic  or  religious 
brotherhoods  in  which  the  love  of  the  mysterious  plays  the  most  important 
role  (76) .  The  very  naming  of  college  societies  feeds  the  love  of  mystery,  as 
illustrated  by  the  Greek  letters,  the  'Skull  and  Bones'  and  'Scroll  and  Key.' 

The  next  step  in  development  in  the  usage  of  secrecy  is 
taken  when  it  becomes  used  to  satisfy  acquisitiveness. 

This  is  illustrated  in  its  primitiveness  by  the  following : 

"When  I  was  about  nine  years  old,  five  girls  and  myself  formed  a  club. 
It  was  known  as  the  Contrary  Girls  Club,  or  C.  G.  C.  Our  main  object  was 
to  get  as  many  secrets  as  we  could  during  the  week,  and  then  on  Saturday 
afternoon  we  would  meet  and  tell  our  secrets.  The  ones  we  considered  the 
most  important  we  would  give  some  certain  initial  or  initials,  and  then 
record  them  in  a  book." 

It  is  then  but  a  step  from  this  stage  to  that  characterized 
by  the  aristocratic  feeling,  the  latter  being  the  feeling  of 
being  better  than  the  other  fellow,  the  former  being  the  desire 


406  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

to  possess.  The  former  is  therefore  the  servant  of  the  latter, 
since  in  our  society  rank  is  correlative  with  possession.  The 
desire  to  possess  something  of  value,  be  it  nothing  more  than  a 
secret,  may  thus  be  in  motivation  subordinate  to  the  desire 
to  rise  in  social  rank.  This  is  illustrated  in  student  fraternities. 
Not  their  only  feature,  to  be  sure,  and  in  the  published  inten- 
tion not  at  all  present,  are  those  two  motives.  But  in  actual 
practise  it  works  that  way.  The  fact  that  a  society  is  secret 
makes  it  stand  out  prominently  in  the  foreground  of  the  desi- 
rable social  states.  And  this  prominence  encourages  aristoc- 
racy. When  the  experience  of  the  individuals  thus  raised 
into  prominence  has  been  broad  enough  to  have  toned  down 
their  primeval  feeling  of  superiority,  both  in  regard  to  them- 
selves and  to  their  group,  the  effect  is  good;  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  this  rise  into  prominence  be  made  by  less  mature  or  less 
experienced  minds,  the  effect  on  their  view  of  the  world  is 
detrimental.  The  former  is  the  aristocracy  which  should  be 
emulated,  the  evolution  of  a  group  to  a  higher  cultural  plane ; 
the  latter  is  the  false  aristocracy  which  exhibits  itself  in  snob- 
bishness, bigheadedness  and  in  extreme  cases,  megalomania. 
We  find  here  the  psychological  reason  why  fraternities  are 
detrimental  in  high  schools.  Boys  and  girls  are  too  young,  as 
a  rule,  to  be  able  to  experience  the  feeling  of  superiority, 
engendered  by  the  prominent  position  which  is  the  result  of 
secrecy.  This  prominence,  too,  is  extraordinarily  increased 
because  the  other  students  are  of  the  same  age  as  the  members 
of  the  fraternity,  and  their  envy  of  the  members  of  the  secret 
organization  is  stronger  than  it  would  be  at  any  other  period  of 
life.  The  same  snobbishness,  however,  is  produced  by  victory 
in  athletics.  Where  fraternities  exist  the  condition  is  made 
worse  because  of  the  fact  that  the  man  placed  in  an  enviable 
position  through  athletic  prowess  is  the  most  desirable  candi- 
date for  the  fraternity,  and  the  cumulative  resultant  is  a  snob  of 
the  choicest  variety,  unless  he  be  equaled  by  the  snob  of 
newly  acquired  wealth.  Approximately  the  same  importance 
is  given  to  athletics  and  social  life  in  college  as  in  high  school, 
but  the  effect  in  college  is  much  less  aggravating,  because  of  the 
greater  maturity  of  the  students.  The  high  school  boy,  who 
has  been  the  easy  victor  in  all  contests,  on  entering  college 
learns  that  there  are  others  just  as  fleet,  just  as  clever,  and  in 
all  probability  a  feV  who  are  even  brighter.  A  few  defeats 
cures  his  youthful  self-regard.  In  adult  life,  entrance  into  a 
secret  order  does  not,  as  a  rule,  produce  this  deleterious  effect 
of  the  high  school  age,  because  men  are  then  old  enough  to  be 
able  to  experience  prominence  without  becoming  conceited, 
and  also  because  the  prominence  is  less,  on  account  of  the  ease 
with  which  men  can  become  members  of  secret  orders. 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  407 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  while  the  prominence  of  secrecy 
in  children's  societies  is  due  to  these  fundamental  human 
needs  which  are  satisfied,  the  form  that  secrecy  takes  is  due 
largely  to  contagion.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  secret 
features  here  found  are  the  result  of  imitation.  Many  have 
secret  names,  passwords,  rituals,  secret  signs  and  other  mys- 
teries as  a  result  of  the  fact  that  they  know  adult  clubs  have 
them. 

Dramatic  Features.  Closely  allied  with  the  secret  elements 
of  the  club  are  the  dramatic  features.  By  the  dramatic 
features  we  mean  all  those  attributes  which  appeal  to  the  love 
of  the  make-believe.  We  need  not  delay  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  the  pleasure  in  the  make-believe,  whether  the  subject 
takes  part  in  the  acting,  or  merely  witnesses  the  acting  of 
others,  is  an  universal  one.  Miss  Addams  points  out  in  a 
charming  way  the  place  this  craving  holds  in  adolescence, 
and  that  the  reason  why  it  is  so  exceedingly  strong  among  the 
workers  of  the  city  is  that  the  drama  provides  a  transition 
between  the  romantic  conceptions  which  they  vainly  struggle 
to  keep  intact  and  life's  cruelties  and  trivialities  which  they 
refuse  to  admit.  The  satisfaction  of  the  make-believe  in  the 
form  of  reading  and  reverie  is  denied  them.  But  on  the  stage 
the  youth  can  witness  the  deeds  of  his  hero  presented  before 
his  eyes ;  these  he  views  simply  as  a  forecast  of  his  own  future. 
This  fascinating  view  of  his  own  career  it  is  which  draws  the 
boy  to  shows  of  all  kinds  (3). 

The  club  to  some  extent  satisfies  this  need.  It  provides 
a  great  hierarchy  of  offices  and  degrees. 

Europe  has  its  pageantry  and  titled  nobility,  its  Order  of  the  Bath  and 
Garter,  the  Legion  of  Honor  and  Iron  Cross.  Americans  satisfy  this 
underlying  human  need  by  parades  of  Knights  Templars,  Elks  and  Odd 
Fellows,  in  which  thousands  put  on  sword  and  silk  and  scarf.  They  create 
for  themselves  such  titles  as  Official  Potentate,  Imperial  Deputy  Potentate, 
Imperial  Chief  Rabban,  Imperial  High  Priest  and  Prophet,  Imperial 
Oriental  Guide,  Imperial  First  Ceremonial  Master,  as  in  the  Nobles  of  the 
Mystic  Shrine;  the  Grand  Exalted  Ruler,  High  Chief  Ranger,  Keeper  of 
the  Exchequer,  Grand  Almoner,  or,  as  in  the  Imperial  Order  of  Red  Men, 
the  Grand  Incohoner,  Great  Senior  Sagamore  and  Great  Keeper  of  the 
Wampum.  These  titles,  representative  of  hundreds,  are  well  ridiculed  in 
the  following  offices :  Cock  of  the  Walk,  Bantam  Cock,  Chief  Scratcher,  and 
Early  Bird,  in  the  Order  of  Red  Roosters,  and  Most  Loyal  Gander,  Grand 
Custodian  of  the  Goslings,  Supervisor  of  the  Flock,  Grand  Guardian  of  the 
Pond,  and  Grand  Wielder  of  the  Goose  Quill,  in  the  Order  of  the  Red 
Goose.  The  love  of  the  make-believe  underlies  the  organization  of  the 
Concatenated  Order  of  Hoo  Hoo,  the  Prudential  Patriarchs  of  Pompeii, 
the  Knights  and  Ladies  of  the  Golden  Star  and  many  others  that  might  be 
mentioned. 

Examination  of  the  rituals,  based  on  secret  and  secular  themes,  such  as 
the  story  of  the  cross,  building  of  the  temple,  David  and  Jonathan,  Joseph, 
the  Maccabees,  Ben  Hur,  facts  of  United  States  history,  nomad  life,  the 
friendship  of  Damon  and  Pythias  and  the  crusades  are  used  to  increase  both 


408  A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

the  mysterious  and  the  dramatic  elements  in  the  club  organization.  Com- 
menting on  the  ritual,  Simmel  says:  "Every  such  society  (a  secret  society 
with  a  ritual)  contains  a  measure  of  freedom,  which  is  not  really  provided  for 
in  the  structure  of  the  surrounding  society.  Whether  the  secret  society, 
like  the  Vehme  complements  the  inadequate  judicature  of  the  political 
area;  or  whether,  as  in  the  case  of  conspiracies  or  criminal  bands,  it  is  an 
uprising  against  the  law  of  that  area;  or  whether,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
'mysteries,'  they  hold  themselves  outside  of  the  commands  and  prohibi- 
tions of  the  greater  area — in  either  case  the  apartness  (Heraussonderung) 
which  characterizes  the  secret  society  has  the  tone  of  a  freedom  "(70,  p.  483). 
In  other  words,  the  secret  society  with  its  ritual  transcends  the  humdrum, 
hard  and  fast  facts  of  everyday  life,  and  forces  open  the  gates  into  the  realm 
of  the  ideal,  the  world  of  the  imaginative,  the  make-believe.  Read  over  the 
names  of  the  degrees  in  Scottish  rite  Freemasonry,  from  the  highest  level  of 
Sovereign  Grand  Inspector  General  down  through  the  thirty-three  stata, 
some  of  which  are,  Sublime  Prince  of  the  Royal  Secret,  Grand  Elect  Knight 
Kadosch,  Knight  of  the  Brazen  Serpent,  Patriarch  Noachite,  Knight  of 
the  Rose  Croix,  Prince  of  Jerusalem  and  Grand  Elect  Perfect  and  Sublime 
Mason. 

Forbush  recognized  this  need,  when  he  organized  the  Knights  of  King 
Arthur  for  boys,  with  their  round  table,  their  formality,  ritual  and  titled 
officialdom  (26).  Consciously  or  unconsciously  the  Boy  Scouts  recognize 
it  in  their  provision  for  hero-worhip,  for  playing  at  Indian  life,  at  military 
drill  and  first  aid  to  the  injured.  These  activities  satisfy  the  'dramatic 
instinct.'  Labor  unions  have  introduced  many  of  the  features  of  the 
secret  brotherhoods,  such  as  'riding  the  goat,'  high  sounding  titles 
ritual,  passwords,  etc.  Their  fundamental  purpose  certainly  has  no  con- 
nection with  satisfying  the  dramatic  instinct.  In  actual  practise  it  is 
found  that  those  unions  are  most  successful  which  minister  most  widely  to 
the  needs  of  its  members.  Among  these  is  the  demand  of  the  dramatic 
instinct. 

Walter  B.  Hill  calls  the  institution  of  the  club  the  great 
American  safety-valve  (39).  The  teaching  of  our  public 
schools  is  that  any  man  may  become  president,  when  as  a 
matter  of  fact  they  can't  all  be  presidents.  Hill  says:  "I 
made  a  test  case  of  a  small  town,  and  found  that  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  (above  ten  years  of  age)  in  the  place  held  an 
office — with  the  exception  of  a  few  scores  of  flabby  jelly-fish 
characters,  whose  lack  of  ambition  or  enterprise  removes  them 
from  consideration  as  elements  of  the  problem.  .  .  Here 
then  we  have  the  great  American  safety-valve — we  are  a  nation 
of  presidents."  Holding  office  satisfies  the  love  of  the  make- 
believe,  and  incidentally,  as  other  drama  does,  it  trains  for  the 
real. 

Besides  these  indirect  ministrations  to  the  call  of  the  make- 
believe,  it  is  directly  satisfied  in  all  sorts  of  clubs  by  participa- 
tion in  the  presentation  of  drama,  readings  and  entertainments. 
By  these  dramatic  features  clubs  increase  their  influence  and 
perpetuate  their  life. 

Other  Features.  The  quotation  from  Mr.  Hill  introduces  us 
to  another  set  of  factors  used  by  the  club.  Holding  office  not 
only  satisfies  the  dramatic  impulse,  but  it  is  a  sort  of  subtle 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  409 

flattery;  it  gives  a  realization  of  greatness,  through  cajoling 
positive  self-feeling.  The  more  flamboyant  the  titles,  the 
more  the  feeling  of  superiority  is  tickled.  This  is  not  identical 
With  the  love  of  the  make-believe,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
there  is  satisfaction  in  playing  the  villain.  Other  means  of 
adding  to  the  satisfaction  of  this  self-centered  feeling  are  the 
addition  of  those  agencies  which  actually  do  improve  the  indi- 
vidual status,  financially,  socially,  intellectually,  morally,  etc. 
The  beneficiary  and  insurance  features  directly  improve 
financial  status.  Membership  in  fraternal  orders,  as  well  as  in 
religious  and  social  clubs,  is  oftentimes  sought  purely  to  im- 
prove one's  business  connections.  Social  status  is  acquired 
by  the  same  means.  And  here  we  class  the  purely  social 
clubs.  Self -improvement  is  made  a  strong  motive  for  joining 
the  club,  by  its  provision  of  education  specifically  in  literature, 
art,  drama,  music  and  physical  culture,  and  more  generally  in 
every  subject  of  interest  through  the  intercourse  of  conversa- 
tion, discussion  and  set  lectures.  Thus  the  club  aids  the 
individual  to  gain  a  living,  to  improve  his  social  status  and  to 
raise  his  general  efficiency. 

It  might  be  a  matter  of  debate  whether  the  religious  and 
altruistic  elements  in  clubs  should  be  classed  with  those  in  the 
preceding  paragraph,  or  whether  they  should  be  treated  as 
satisfying  an  impulse,  distinct  from  that  of  positive  self- 
feeling.  We  will  not  argue  that  point.  The  fact  remains 
that  the  club  does  in  many  ways  satisfy  the  needs  expressed  by 
these  feelings.  The  religious  and  philanthropic  societies  do 
this  directly ;  the  fraternal  societies  have  many  religious  ele- 
ments, for  instance  the  Masons,  the  Knights  of  Malta,  and 
the  Odd  Fellows,  whose  motto  is  '  Friendship,  Love  and  Faith.' 
Another  feature  of  the  club,  about  which  there  is  similar 
difficulty  of  classification  is  the  recreative,  the  provision  of 
muscular  exercise,  mental  relaxation,  and  games  of  chance  or 
skill.  The  characteristic  of  this  group  of  activities  is  the 
hygienic  element.  The  result  is  self -improvement,  yet  the 
feeling  satisfied  is  different  in  each  case.  Here,  too,  there  are 
clubs  formed  entirely  for  athletics,  as  there  are  found  those 
primarily  altruistic  and  social.  Every  club  which  has  a  building 
or  grounds  of  its  own  aims  to  satisfy  this  type  of  need. 

But  the  club  also  satisfies  at  least  one  other  instinct.  Con- 
structiveness  is  well  fed  in  the  activities  of  such  men  as  Root, 
Clendenen,  Upchurch,  and  the  other  organizers  and  ritual 
writers.  There  must  glow  in  the  breast  of  these  constructive 
geniuses  some  such  fire  as  Pres.  Hall  ascribes  to  the  novitiate 
into  the  class  of  contributors  to  science  after  the  production  of 
his  doctor's  thesis.  There  is  surely  a  peculiar  joy  that  comes 
from  the  successful  formation  of  a  new  organization,  and  a 


41 0  A   STUDY   IN   SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

great  many  thousands  have  had  the  privilege  of  being  charter 
members  of  clubs  of  all  kinds  in  the  last  few  decades. 

Another  force  unconsciously  employed  by  the  club,  which 
has  the  effect  of  strengthening  the  group  spirit,  is  that  of 
opposition  and  conflict. 

Struggle  is  a  stimulus  to  growth.  The  mind,  like  the  body, 
needs  continual  peripheral  stimulation  to  keep  awake.  One 
of  the  chief  services  of  the  school  examination  is  that  it  is  a 
continual  spur,  keeping  one  at  the  height  of  working  capacity. 
It  brings  the  realization  of  the  possibility  of  failure,  and  the 
desire  to  succeed  and  excel  makes  a  conflict,  a  game,  a  contest 
of  study,  with  big  obstacles  to  overcome.  Similar  is  the 
effect  produced  by  the  effort  to  attain  some  definite  end,  what- 
ever be  its  nature.  To  have  a  purpose,  whether  it  be  to  build 
up  a  business,  to  support  a  family  and  raise  children,  to  excel 
in  the  profession,  to  have  a  real  work  to  do  gives  zest  to  life 
and  increases  efficiency.  This  much  is  true  of  opposition  in 
its  effect  on  the  individual. 

Opposition  to  a  group  from  without  has  a  similar  effect. 
Persecution  always  strengthens  the  ties  between  those  op- 
pressed. Minor  differences  are  overlooked  in  the  light  of  the 
greater  need  which  cries  out  for  unity.  Some  families  can  only 
be  united  by  sorrow  in  the  death  of  one  of  their  number,  or  by 
some  other  great  calamity,  such  as  a  scandal,  when,  as  with 
political  opponents,  there  is  unity  in  the  face  of  foreign  war. 
External  opposition  has  the  effect  of  throwing  into  relief  the 
stronger  esprit  de  corps. 

This  is  clearly  seen  with  fraternities,  particularly  those 
among  high  school  students.  The  feeling  of  unity  among  the 
members  is  only  magnified  by  the  fact  that  they  have  a  com- 
mon enemy  who  would  destroy  their  club.  Persecution  of  a 
religious  sect  strengthens  it,  unless  it  be  strong  enough  to 
annihilate  it,  not  merely  because  opposition  gives  more  mean- 
ing to  the  religion,  but  also  because  it  draws  the  members 
into  closer  fellowship. 

A  different  psychic  process  is  involved  when  there  is  antag- 
onism between  the  members  of  the  group.  If  this  is  too 
strong  the  group  is  broken  up.  But  in  moderate  degrees  it  has 
the  effect  of  strengthening  it  by  providing  what  Simmel  calls 
"one  of  those  contrast-stimuli  evidently  demanded  by  the 
innermost  needs  of  the  unifying  social  bond,  because  there,  as 
elsewhere,  the  permanent  can  emerge  and  come  to  conscious 
force  only  as  a  function  of  the  changeable  "  (69,  p.  48).  This 
is  as  true  of  the  social  bonds  existing  between  individuals  as 
those  binding  large  numbers.  Periods  of  quarrel  and  dis- 
agreement seem  to  be  a  regular  experience  of  lovers  and  of 
married  couples.  These  estrangements  are  followed  by  reac- 


A  STUDY  IN  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY  411 

tions  when  the  bond  of  unity  is  stronger  than  before  the  quarrel, 
the  effect  of  the  quarrel  being  to  bring  into  consciousness  the 
realization  of  the  misery  which  would  ensue  if  the  bond  were 
permanently  broken,  against  which  dark  background  is 
thrown  the  bright  picture  of  the  happiness  which  charac- 
terizes their  union.  The  psychic  process  appears  to  be  the 
same  with  the  members  of  a  club.  Difference  of  opinion 
regarding  policies  is  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  making 
definite  the  real  object  of  the  organization.  The  club  would 
die  of  stagnation,  as  many  churches  in  fact  do,  were  there  no^f  jjlf^ 


differences  between  its  members. 

GENERAL  SUMMARY 

The  description  of  the  psychological  elements  utilized  by  the 
club  has  involved  at  least  the  mention  of  most  of  the  social 
qualities  possessed  by  man.  The  club  in  present  day  America 
is  indeed  a  broad  institution.  Its  broadest  foundation  is 
laid  in  sociability.  Whether  or  not  other  sentiments  are 
involved,  this  is  always  present.  .  Unsociable  individuals  never 
form  clubs.  Sociability  is  therefore  the  most  fundamental  of 
all  the  forces  which  produce  the  club.  It  may  be  supplemented 
either  by  contagion  €r  deliberation  or  both.  Either  combi- 
nation will  produce  the  club.  Other  forces  may  assist,  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  feeling  of  personal  attachment  between 
individuals,  but  this  is  not  essential.  These  being  the  forces, 
there  are  certain  conditions  necessary  before  their  functioning 
will  produce  the  club,  those  conditions  being  individual  differ- 
ences in  the  capacity  for  leadership  and  congeniality  of  inter- 
ests. The  club  being  organized  begets  other  psychic  forces  of 
which  we  have  discussed  the  social  stimulus,  esprit  de  corps, 
honor,  and  friendship.  Besides  these  forces,  clubs,  either  by 
their  nature,  or  unconsciously,  employ  other  factors  which, 
by  appealing  to  nativ_e_-tesdencies,  strengthen  the  club;  such 
factors  as_-secrecy,  ritualism  and  dramatic  features,  agencies 
for  self-advancement,  financially,  in  status  and  in  efficiency, 
religious  and  altruistic  features,  the  provision  of  possibilities 
of  recreation,  athletics,  games  and  amusements,  and  the  force 
of  opposition.  Though  the  aim  of  this  paper  has  been  to 
make  a  contribution  to  the  science  of  social  psychology,  it  is 
hoped  that,  if  the  conclusions  herein  reached  be  valid,  they 
may  be  of  some  suggestiveness  to  all  who  are  interested  in 
the  formation  of  clubs,  whether  formed  by  any  group  for 
their  own  ends,  or  by  adults  for  boys  and  girls. 

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